mm® 


.SELECTED  ESSAYS. 


BY 


EDWARD  THOMSON,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 

// 

Late  a  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


foe  tfje  (Epraorff;  league. 


CRANSTON  &  CURTS:  CINCINNATI,  CHICAGO,  ST.  Louis. 

HUNT  &  EATON:  NKW  YORK. 

1893- 


COPYRIGHTED. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

GENERAL  EDUCATION,    .   . 5 

MENTAL  SYMMETRY, 34 

THE  INNER  WORLD, 58 

MISCELLANEOUS  READING 77 

HINTS  TO  YOUTH, 101 


pvj,/HE  education  developed  in  these  pages  is  not  one  that 
displays  a  mock  morality  and  a  false  faith,  but  one 
in  which  the  religion  of  the  Bible  is  made  to  assume 
its  true  place  as  the  foundation-stone.  Everywhere 
does  the  author  recognize  the  importance  of  combining 
religious  culture  with  general  education,  in  order  that 
the  world  may  be  saved  from  the  curse  of  unsanctified 
knowledge. 

The  author  of  these  essays  is  said  to  be  of  the  same 
family  stock  as  James  Thomson,  the  poet  of  the  "  Seasons." 
What  Lord  Littleton  said  of  the  poet,  we  believe  may  be 
said  with  equal  propriety  of  the  essayist — that  his  writings 
contain 

"  No  line  wliicli,  dying,  be  could  wish  to  blot." 


THE  history  of  education  may  be  divided  into  four 
periods.  The  first,  commencing  with  the  fall  of  man 
and  extending  to  the  Deluge,  comprehends  a  term  of 
two  thousand  years,  and  may  be  denominated  the  pa- 
triarchal. It  is  probable  that,  in  this  period,  the  whole 
race  was  in  a  semi-barbarous  condition;  they  wandered 
in  deserts  and  forests,  depending  upon  fishing  and  the 
chase  for  subsistence,  and  consuming  all  their  time  and 
expending  all  their  energies  in  procuring  the  necessaries 
of  lite.  They  had  no  agriculture,  commerce,  navigation, 
arts,  or  science  worthy  of  the  name.  Their  wars  were 
collisions  of  brute  force;  their  governments  were  of  the 
simplest  kind,  growing,  in  most  instances,  out  of  the 
influence  of  aged  patriarchs  or  veteran  chiefs;  their 
arts  were  few  and  rude;  their  sciences  consisted  of  a 
few  phenomena,  perverted  to  superstitious  purposes; 
their  religion,  though  based  upon  important  revela- 
tions, was  obscured,  if  not  obliterated,  by  vain  imagin- 
ations. The  little  knowledge  which  they  possessed  was 
transmitted  only  by  tradition,  as  they  had  no  written 
language.  Their  wealth  was  poverty,  their  courage  fe 
rocity,  their  wisdom  superstition,  their  religion  idolatry. 
God  was  the  only  teacher,  and  it  was  but  now  and 
then  that  he  opened  heaven  and  let  down  a  truth  upon 
them.  Their  wickedness  hung  an  impenetrable  cloud 
over  them,  and  the  few  beams  that  darted  through  it 
from  the  skies  were  soon  absorbed  and  lost  in  prevailing 


6  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

errors.  There  was.  however,  at  all  times,  one  luminous 
spot  on  earth,  though  often  bound  by  a  circle  a  few  feet 
in  diameter.  Enoch,  Nimrod,  Noah,  and  kindred  wor- 
thies, manifested  vigorous  intellect.  The  history  of  an- 
tediluvian ages  is  nearly  lost;  nor  need  we  deplore  the 
obscurity  which  rests  over  that  distant  period,  since  we 
know  that  it  had  no  influence  upon  postdiluvian  timeSj 
and  that,  if  the  vail  could  be  removed,  we  could  obtain 
no  valuable  information. 

After  the  Deluge,  the  human  mind  manifested  in 
creased  activity.  Less  than  two  hundred  years  subse- 
quent to  that  event,  Nimrod,  or  Belus,  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  Babylon,  and  Ashur  built  Nineveh,  which  be- 
came the  capital  of  the  Assyrian  empire.  Not  long  pos- 
terior, the  Egyptian  empire  was  founded  by  Menes,  or 
Mizraim. 

A  period  of  energy,  and  effort,  and  light  ensued,  com 
prehending  the  history  of  the  palmy  days  of  Egypt, 
Greece,  and  Rome,  and  embracing  a  period  of  more 
than  two  thousand  years.  The  first  and  perhaps  the 
greatest  development  of  human  intellect,  was  in  the  val 
ley  of  the  Nile.  Egypt  attained  an  elevation  in  science, 
arts,  and  song,  to  which  the  world  must  look  up  for  ages 
to  come.  The  pyramids,  temples,  obelisks,  columns,  and 
colossal  statues  at  Thebes,  still  remain — having  resisted 
the  desolations  of  time  for  many  successive  centuries — 
and  attest  the  power,  the  perseverance,  and  the  skill  of 
Egyptian  artisans.  The  shriveled  mummy,  torn  from 
the  emboweled  catacomb,  and  transported  to  a  distant 
shore,  to  gratify  the  eye  of  vain  and  eager  curiosity,  re- 
minds us  that  arts,  of  which  we  are  ignorant,  were  known 
in  early  ages  to  Egypt.  Pompey's  Pillar,  Cleopatra's 
Ntedles,  and  the  forests  of  columns,  and  piles  of  ruins 
that,  are  scattered  all  along  the  "city  of  the  Dead,"  bear 
ample  attestation  to  the  ancient  glory  of  Alexandria. 


GENERAL    EDUCATION. 

It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  when  mankind  passed 
from  the  migratory  to  the  settled  condition,  the  adjust- 
ment of  the  boundaries  of  their  possessions  would  be  an 
object  of  attention.  Accordingly,  we  find  that  geometry 
is  an  ancient  science ;  and  although  its  methods,  ia 
early  ages,  were  coarse,  it  nevertheless  subserved  the 
most  valuable  purposes. 

To  what  extent  the  natural  sciences  were  cultivated 
we  are  at  a  loss  to  conceive;  but  we  have  sufficient 
ground  to  conjecture,  that  the  external  character  of 
fossils,  the  structure  of  the  earth,  the  nature  of  vegeta- 
bles, and  the  history  of  animals,  were  by  no  means  over- 
looked by  the  philosophers  of  Egypt. 

The  more  important  phenomena  of  the  heavens  were 
observed  in  a  very  early  age;  and  although  no  satisfac- 
tory manner  of  accounting  for  them  was  devised  till  a 
later  period,  yet  the  astronomical  knowledge  of  antiquity 
was  as  accurate,  if  not  as  extensive,  as  widely  diffused, 
though  not  as  philosophical,  as  that  of  the  nineteenth 
century  of  the  Christian  era.  The  phases  of  the  moon, 
the  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  the  differences  between 
s>larand  sidereal  time  were  all  familiarly  known  to  an- 
cient Egypt.  The  zodiac  was  divided  into  signs  by  a 
process  simple  and  ingenious,  and  requiring  a  persever- 
ance worthy  of  the  highest  reward.  So  common  was 
astronomical  knowledge  in  those  early  ages,  that  we  have 
reason  to  suppose  almost  every  distinguished  individual 
hud  a  horoscope,  and  that  the  zodiacs  found  in  the 
ruins  of  Estne  and  Dendara  are  specimens  of  that  in- 
strument. The  true  system  of  astronomy,  supposed  by 
many  to  be  the  achievement  of  modern  science,  was 
taught  by  Pythagoras  five  hundred  and  ninety  years 
prior  to  the  Christian  era,  and  was  probably  derived  by 
him  from  ^Dunophis,  an  Egyptian  priest  of  On. 

The   healing  art  attained   considerable   maturity  at  & 


8  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

very  early  age.  Facts  were  observed  and  classified,  and 
deductions  drawn,  remedies  were  multiplied,  experiments 
made,  and  temples  dedicated  to  ^Esculapius.  Knowledge 
was  accumulated  and  transmitted,  and  much  that  is  useful 
in  medicine  was  known  before  the  days  of  Hippocrates 
or  Galen. 

In  the  fine  arts  no  modern  nation  has  ever  been  equal 
to  Egypt.  Music,  painting,  and  sculpture  were  culti- 
vated among  the  Egyptians  with  a  success  to  which  no 
subsequent  age  has  ever  yet  approached.  Greece  re- 
ceived light  from  Egypt,  and  traced  her  footsteps.  In 
government,  war,  philosophy,  poetry,  and  refinement,  she 
has  never  been  surpassed.  Do  you  ask  for  her  law- 
givers? History  points  to  her  Solon  and  Lycurgus.  For 
her  orators?  She  pronounces  the  name  of  Demosthenes. 
For  her  warriors?  She  mentions  Leonidas  and  Xeno- 
phon.  For  her  philosophers?  She  directs  to  Pythagoras 
and  Socrates.  For  her  arts  ?  She  points  to  the  Coliseum 
and  Parthenon,  still  rearing  their  summits  in  the  sun- 
beams. For  her  poets  ?  She  names  Homer,  and  proudly 
challenges  the  present  or  the  past  to  mention  his  equal. 

The  human  mind,  though  amply  developed  both  in 
Egypt  and  Greece,  did  not  take  the  same  direction  in 
both.  Egypt  cultivated  the  perceptive,  Greece  the  re- 
flective faculties.  Egypt  surpassed  in  arts,  Greece  in 
science.  Egypt  observed  facts,  Greece  drew  deductions. 
The  former  studied  external  nature,  the  latter  the  inter- 
nal microcosm.  The  one  cultivated  the  arts  that  adorn, 
the  other  those  that  ennoble  mankind.  Egypt  threw  her 
wand  upon  the  pencil  and  the  chisel,  and  bade  the  mar- 
ble breathe,  and  made  the  canvas  speak.  Greece  threw 
her  charm  upon  the  heart,  and  hushed  the  passions  into 
ealm,  or  whirled  them  into  storm.  The  one  imitated  na- 
ture, the  other  vanquished  her.  The  former  arrested  the 
nurrent  of  life  in  silent  admiration,  by  her  combinations 


GENEfcAL    EDUCATION.  9 

of  color,  form,  and  sound;  the  other  held  the  heart 
pulseless  by  her  vivid  delineations  of  intense  conception. 

Rome  followed  Greece,  but  stopped  far  short  of  her. 
The  impulse  which  the  human  mind  had  received  ap- 
peared to  have  been  in  some  degree  spent  before  it 
reached  the  imperial  city.  Nevertheless,  the  works  of 
ancient  Rome  are  among  the  noblest  triumphs  of  man, 
and  her  language  is  the  repository  of  some  of  the  rich- 
est treasures  of  human  thought.  Long  as  literature  and 
science  are  cultivated,  or  the  earth  is  the  abode  of  man, 
the  works  of  Tribonian,  Virgil,  Cicero,  and  cotemporane- 
ous  writers,  will  be  subjects  of  the  highest  admiration. 
We  need  no  other  proof  of  Roman  greatness  than  Ro- 
man language.  It  is  precisely  adapted  to  convey  strong 
thought  and  intense  feeling.  We  may  form  a  very  good 
idea  of  a  nation's  intellect  by  its  language.  That  of 
France  is  just  such  as  a  versatile,  volatile  people,  like 
themselves,  would  desire — formed  for  colloquial  purposes. 
That  of  modern  Italy  seems  designed  for  love  songs,  the 
only  effort  for  which  the  emaciated  mind  of  its  inhab- 
itants appears  to  be  adapted.  The  language  of  old  Rome 
is  fitted  for  the  most  majestic  movements  of  mind. 

Under  the  influence  of  luxury  and  vice,  Rome  grad- 
ually declined,  till  at  length  she  was  overrun  by  success- 
ive hordes  of  barbarians,  by  whom  the  most  valuable 
productions  of  her  art  were  despoiled,  and  her  land, 
which  was  as  the  garden  of  Eden,  became  converted  into 
a  desolatg  wilderness. 

It  is  melancholy  to  behold  the  empress  of  the  world, 
who  had  crushed  beneath  her  iron  footsteps  Carthage, 
Pontus,  and  Judea,  and  whose  chains,  at  one  time,  every 
nation,  from  Gaul  to  India,  were  proud  to  wear,  trampled 
beneath  the  brutal  tread  of  Huns,  Goths,  and  Vandals. 
The  reason  was  apparent.  She  neglected  the  education 
of  her  sons.  It  was  not  because  she  had  no  gunpowder 


10  EDUCATIONAL    E8SAT8. 

that  she  tell.  She  would  have  fallen  with  an  armory  in 
every  village,  and  a  magazine  in  every  house.  Had  she 
possessed  the  spirit  of  her  Caesars,  or  her  Catos,  she 
would  have  buekled  on  her  shield,  and  her  legions  would 
have  rolled  back  the  tide  of  invasion,  and  planted  the 
Roman  eagle  on  the  invader's  soil. 

This  brings  us  to  the  third  period,  comprehending 
those  times  to  which  posterity  has  assigned  the  appel- 
lation of  dark  ages.  During  the  long  period  of  nearly 
ten  centuries,  the  human  mind  appeared  to  have  lost 
nearly  all  its  power;  and  the  trophies  which  it  had 
tefore  won  were  buried  in  oblivion.  Universal  dark- 
ness prevailed. 

The  monks  were  the  only  individuals  who  paid  atten- 
tion to  literature  and  science ;  nor  did  they  all  devote 
themselves  to  these  pursuits — it  was  only  here  and  there 
that  a  monk  became  learned.  The  mass  of  civilized 
mind  was  stereotyped,  and  appeared  incapable  of  giv- 
ing any  other  impression  than  that  which  the  "  Holy 
Mother"  delineated.  The  priests  spent  their  time  in 
attending  to  the  ceremonies  of  the  Church,  and  the 
Pope  and  cardinals  were  engrossed  in  managing  affairs 
of  state.  The  whole  earth  appeared  to  be  wrapped  in  a 
pall  of  death,  and  the  human  race  to  proceed  in  one 
great  funeral  procession  of  age  after  age  to  eternity. 
The  prevalence  of  Popery  accounts  for  the  condition 
of  the  public  mind  during  the  dark  ages.  The  grand 
principle  on  which  the  Church  of  Rome  stands,  is  that 
the  general  intellect  shall  not  be  developed.  Popery 
and  general  education  are  as  incompatible  as  light  and 
darkness. 

The  last  period  commences  with  the  revival  of  letters, 
and  extends  to  the  present  time.  The  Reformation  and 
the  revival  of  letters  may  be  regarded  as  intimately  con- 
nected, if  not  in  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect.  It  is 


GENERAL    EDUCATION.  11 

certain  that  no  general  revival  of  learning  could  have 
taken  place  without  the  influence  of  the  Reformation. 
The  grand  question  between  the  reformers  and  the  Pope 
was  this,  Shall  there  be  but  one  or  many  minds?  There 
were  many  minor  points,  but  this  was  the  grand  one. 
The  Pope  could  easily  have  adjusted  the  numerous  infe- 
rior matters  in  dispute  between  Luther  and  the  Chair  of 
St.  Peter;  but  he  could  not  yield  his  pretended  right  to 
control  the  world's  intellect.  He  said,  "There  shall  be 
but  one  mind  on  earth;  namely,  my  own."  Here  Luther 
joined  issue,  and  maintained  that  there  should  be  as 
many  minds  as  there  are  men. 

Since  the  Reformation  the  progress  and  diffusion  of 
knowledge  have  been  both  rapid  and  uninterrupted. 

The  discovery  of  the  art  of  printing  and  the  mariner's 
compass,  the  introduction  of  the  Baconian  philosophy, 
and  the  application  of  steam  to  the  mechanic  arts,  have 
done  much  to  prepare  the  way  for  general  education. 
Several  important  political  events  have  contributed  largely 
to  the  same  end.  I  refer  to  the  American  Revolution, 
the  French  Revolution,  and  the  wars  of  Napoleon — the 
first  resulting  in  the  establishment  of  free  government  on 
our  own  shores,  and  the  two  latter  in  the  breaking  up  of 
long-settled  forms  of  tyranny  and  ecclesiastical  usurpa- 
tion, and  all  contributing  to  extend  the  belief  that  man- 
kind ought  to  think  for  themselves. 

We  can  but  mourn  when  we  contemplate  the  bloodshed 
of  revolutionary  France;  but  may  we  not  conceive  that 
ev<n  that  disastrous  event  had  a  powerful  influence  in 
undermining  the  foundations  of  venerable  superstition, 
extending  liberal  principles,  and  promoting  general 
knovledge? 

If  we  turn  our  attention  to  Europe,  we  shall  find  that 
a  day  of  general  knowledge  has  already  begun.  The  pa- 
toehV  schools  of  Scotland  have  long  been  admirable. 


12  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

The  .subject  of  general  education  receives  much  atten 
tion  in  England;  and  although  ecclesiastical  and  political 
institutions  present  an  insuperable  barrier  to  the  estab 
lishment  of  any  efficient  system  of  common  schools  ade- 
quate to  the  wants  of  the  British  nation,  yet  legislative 
and  private  munificence  are  sufficient  to  secure  the  bless- 
ings of  education  to  the  humblest  walks  of  life. 

The  common  school  system  is  acquiring  daily  efficiency 
and  extension  in  France.  The  Citizen  King  is  acquiring 
enduring  popularity  by  elevating  the  general  mind  of  the 
great  nation  which  he  rules,  and  which  has  so  often  been 
fertile  in  wars  and  wickedness.  There  is  much  to  com- 
mend in  the  spirit  which  has  long  prevailed  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  in  Switzerland,  and 
much  to  admire  in  the  public  and  private  institutions  of 
that  independent  people.  In  Sweden  the  most  liberal 
views  have  long  been  entertained  in  relation  to  educa 
tion.  She  has  a  common  school,  supported  at  the  public 
expense,  in  every  considerable  town.  The  University  of 
Upsal  has  an  enviable  reputation ;  and  the  general  edu 
cation  is  a  prominent  object  of  consideration  with  the 
Swedish  government.  The  parochial  schools  of  Den- 
mark are  equal  to  those  of  Scotland;  and  her  metropolis, 
Copenhagen,  is  one  of  the  great  centers  whence  radiate 
the  rays  of  science  and  civilization  over  the  world 
Even  Catholic  Spain  and  Italy  are  awake  on  the  subject 
of  education.  In  Russia  and  Austria  common  schools  and 
seminaries  are  erected,  teachers  are  educated,  and  an 
ample  course  of  instruction  is  pointed  out  by  law.  More- 
over, the  children  are  not  only  provided  for,  but  com- 
pelled to  avail  themselves  of  the  legal  provisions  for  their 
advantage. 

Of  the  system  of  Prussia  we  need  scarcely  speak.  It 
is  the  best  that  was  ever  devised,  and  will  long  be  the 
model  for  all  the  enlightened  nations  of  earth.  Neariy 


GENERAL    EDUCATION.  13. 

all  the  German  states  have  imitated  the  Prussian  system, 
and  several  of  them  have  brought  it  to  the  same  perfec- 
tion as  Prussia  herself.  If  we  cast  our  eyes  toward  Tur- 
Key  and  Egypt,  we  shall  see  that  even  the  Sublime  Porte 
has  caught  the  general  spirit,  and  transferred  it  to  the 
Pacha,  to  spread  over  the  land  of  Sesostris  and  the  Pha- 
raohs. 

In  our  own  country  education  is  becoming  general. 
To  New  England  belongs  the  honor  of  first  providing, 
by  law,  for  popular  education.  Her  noble  example  has 
been  followed  with  various  degrees  of  spirit  and  of  wis- 
dom by  most  of  the  other  states  of  the  Union. 

The  General  Government  has  not  been  an  idle  specta- 
tor of  these  movements  of  the  sisters  of  the  confederacy. 
She  has  assigned  to  the  new  states — beside  occasional 
donations — the  thirty-sixth  part  of  all  the  lands  within 
their  chartered  limits  for  the  purposes  of  general  educa- 
tion. Indeed,  to  our  country  we  must  look  for  the  origin 
of  all  those  plans  of  general  education  which  have  been 
brought  to  such  perfection  in  Europe.  We  believe  that 
when  the  wisest  of  modern  monarchs,  Frederick  William 
III,  ascended  the  throne  of  Prussia,  New  England  had  a 
common  school  system  matured  by  many  successive  years 
of  reflection  and  experience.  He  saw  America  free;  he 
believed  her  institutions  would  prove  permanent;  he 
knew  that  freedom  was  contagious,  and  that  the  example 
of  America  would  be  followed  by  the  other  nations  of 
the  world  unless  monarchies  were  rendered  popular.  To 
accomplish  this  object  he  devised  an  admirable  expedi- 
ent, namely,  the  education  of  his  people,  thus  making 
the  crown  the  source  of  the  highest  blessings  that  can 
descend  from  human  governments,  and  endearing  the 
monarch  to  his  subjects.  Many  crowned  heads  have 
already  perceived  his  wisdom  and  imitated  his  example. 
The  throne  of  an  enlightened  people  is  a  dangerous  seat, 


.14  EDUCATIONAL    E  8.8  AYS. 

yet.  such  is  the  only  kind  of  people  that  Europe  will  soon 
contain ;  and  the  question  among  monarchs  is,  whether 
thrones  shall  be  abolished  or  made  obedient  to  the  pop- 
ular will. 

It  is  enough  to  make  America  blush  to  observe  what 
despotic  governments  have  accomplished  with  a  system 
borrowed  from  ourselves.  If  republics,  standing  alone, 
can  not  endure  without  popular  education,  how  can  they 
stand  in  the  light  of  monarchies  which  outstrip  them  in 
virtue  and  intelligence  ? 

Although  education  is  rapidly  extending,  much  re- 
mains to  be  done  before  its  universal  diffusion.  Millions 
are  in  total  ignorance.  It  was  the  opinion  of  a  late  mon- 
arch, that  out  of  ten  millions  of  the  adult  population  of 
a  civilized  nation,  scarce  one  thousand  were  well  in- 
formed. If  we  limit  our  view  to  our  own  country,  we 
shall  find  much  to  be  done.  In  some  of  the  states  the 
systems  are  partial,  and  in  others  radically  defective. 
The  necessity  of  universal  education  is  obvious  to  all. 
There  are  peculiar  reasons  why  education  should  be  gen- 
eral in  our  own  country.  We  need  intelligence  to  bring 
out  the  treasures  of  our  land — a  land  which,  extending 
from  the  lakes  to  the  gulf,  and  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and 
embracing  almost  every  variety  of  soil  and  climate,  offers 
unnumbered  valleys  and  mountains  to  the  hand  of  cul- 
ture— exhaustless  mines  and  numerous  plants  and  ani- 
mals to  the  scrutiny  of  science,  and  inestimable  resour- 
ces to  the  industry  of  freemen.  We  require  education 
to  discharge  our  duties  as  American  citizens.  All  the 
machinery  of  government  is  moved  by  the  hand  of  the 
people.  The  duties  of  juror,  of  soldier,  and  of  states- 
man fall  upon  the  ordinary  citizen;  nay,  the  highest 
functions  in  the  cabinet,  the  forum,  and  the  field  must 
be  performed  by  the  common  citizen,  because  Columbia 
knows  no  other. 


GENERAL    EDUCATION.  15 

Penn,  in  his  preface  to  the  "  Frame  of  Government," 
remarks,  "  that  which  makes  a  good  constitution  must  keep 
it;  namely,  wisdom  and  virtue — qualities  which,  because 
they  descend  not  with  worldly  inheritance,  must  be  care- 
fully propagated  by  a  virtuous  education."  There  is  a 
doctrine  which  teaches  that  general  tranquillity  can  only 
be  obtained  by  general  ignorance,  and  that  therefore 
education  should  be  confined  to  the  lew,  while  the  many 
are  consigned  to  degradation  and  gloom.  If  there  is  any 
one  that  asks  a  reply  to  this  argument,  let  him  go  to  the 
history  of  the  past,  to  the  dark  regions  of  barbarism,  or 
the  bright  pages  of  revelation,  to  the  indignant  hearts 
of  freemen  pulsating  around  him,  to  reason,  or  to  thatvoice 
within  him  which,  though  still  and  small,  nevertheless 
speaks  as  the  voice  of  God. 

Education  should  be  what  its  name  imports.  It  is 
derived  from  two  words — e  and  duco,  which  signify  to 
lead  out;  and  it  means  development.  There  is  a  very 
great  error  prevalent  on  this  subject.  Were  we  to  con- 
sult the  general  opinion  of  parents,  tutors,  and  pupils, 
we  should  suppose  that  education  is  the  very  reverse 
of  development.  When  a  parent  directs  his  teacher  in 
the  education  of  his  children,  he  informs  him  that  he 
wishes  them  to  have  so  much  knowledge  communicated, 
say  of  grammar,  arithmetic,  Latin,  etc.  He  sends  his 
child  to  school  as  he  does  to  the  merchant,  to  get  so 
much,  as  though  knowledge,  like  doth,  could  be  measured 
by  yardsticks.  The  schoolmaster  generally  provides  him- 
self with  a  stock  of  the  salable  branches  of  education, 
nnd  prepares  to  supply  all  orders  in  his  line.  He  regards 
his  scholars  as  the  druggist  does  his  phials.  He  takes 
their  minds  one  by  one,  and  pours  in,  pours  in,  from  his 
larger  vessel,  of  the  required  material,  as  though  it  were 
oil,  and  carefully  corks  it  up,  fearing  lest  the  least  motion 
thould  -pill  the  precious  article.  The  parent  upon 


16  EDUCATIONAL    E8SAT8. 

receiving  his  child  acts  upon  the  same  principle,  and 
examines  the  child's  head  to  see  if  it  be  full.  The  poor 
child,  too,  always  thinks  of  education  as  of  a  process  of 
filling  up.  He  goes  into  the  school-room  as  he  would  go 
into  prison,  expecting  to  have  his  mind  confined,  and 
handled,  and  filled  up,  and  shaken  down.  Now  the  truth 
is,  that  education  is  following  out  nature,  instead  of  con- 
fining and  crossing  her.  It  consists  in  leading  out  the 
mind.  The  school-room  should  be  an  enchanted  spot, 
and  the  child  should  enter  it  as  the  candidate  for  the 
prize  entered  into  the  Olympic  games,  or  as  the  Indian 
engages  in  the  gigantic  pastimes  of  the  wilderness.  It 
is  the  arena  for  mental  sport  and  mental  struggle,  with  a 
view  to  mental  development.  An  ancient  teacher,  Leu- 
cippus,  understood  the  principle,  when  he  directed  the 
pictures  of  joy  and  gladness  to  be  hung  around  his  school 
room.  I  am  aware  that  much  useful  knowledge  is  com- 
municated in  the  halls  of  science.  There  is  no  branch 
of  science  which  does  not  contribute  its  share  of  valua- 
ble facts.  The  ordinary  branches  of  English  education 
derive  their  chief  value  from  being  available  to  the 
practical  purposes  of  life;  but  in  reference  to  most 
branches  of  knowledge  the  primary  object  is  the  devel- 
opment, discipline,  and  strength  of  the  intellectual  pow 
ers.  This  principle  will  enable  us  to  determine  the 
question  so  much  agitated  in  our  own  day  in  relation  to 
the  necessity  of  the  classics  and  mathematics.  I  know 
that  the  demand  of  the  age  is  for  practical  knowledge. 
We  are  becoming  exclusively  utilitarian.  We  cultivate 
a  contempt  for  every  thing  which  has  not  a  practical 
application.  The  writings  of  several  eminent  men  in 
this  country  and  in  Europe  have  contributed  largely  to 
give  this  direction  to  public  sentiment.  The  general 
inquiry  among  parents  is,  what  will  enable  my  son  to 
make  money?  Under  the  influence  of  a  Carthaginian 


UENERAL    EDUCATION.  17 

avarice  the  process  of  reasoning  seems  to  be  getting  out 
of  vogue.  There  is  scarce  any  promiscuous  assembly 
that  can  listen,  for  an  hour,  to  a  connected  chain  of 
thought.  The  only  mental  operations  for  which  our  age 
seems  to  be  fitted,  are  arithmetical  calculations  and  the 
memory  of  facts.  It  is  not  surprising  that  the  classics 
and  mathematics  are  sinking  into  neglect. 

There  are  reasons  why  they  should  be  studied  inde- 
pendent of  their  power  to  train  the  mind.  The  latter 
are  indispensable  to  the  investigation  of  important  prob- 
lems in  the  natural  sciences;  and  the  former  are  service- 
able bj  explaining  the  general  principles  of  grammar, 
enabling  the  student  to  drink  the  waters  of  the  purest 
fountains  of  classic  literature,  uncorrupted  by  translation, 
and  giving  him  clearness  and  copiousness  of  language ; 
but  the  great  advantage  consists  in  the  exercise  of  ab- 
straction, attention,  and  memory.  If  we  overlook  all 
minor  advantages,  and  regard  the  classics  and  mathemat- 
ics as  instruments  of  mental  training  merely,  and  if  we 
insist  that  practical  benefits  alone  should  be  regarded  in 
the  education  of  the  young,  yet.  may  we  show  that  they 
are  important.  When  the  physician  bids  his  dyspeptic 
patient  to  go  to  some  distant  spring,  whose  waters  are 
falsely  supposed  to  be  medicated,  does  he  act  unwisely? 
What  though  the  invalid  obtains  no  medicine  by  his 
journey,  may  he  not  be  benefited?  The  change  of  hab- 
ite,  of  air,  of  scenery,  of  thought,  of  diet,  and  the 
healthful  exercise  of  body,  may  co  operate  to  produce  a  cure 
of  his  loathsome  malady,  and  confer  upon  him  the  high- 
est blessings;  namely,  a  cheerful  mind,  and  a  sound  and 
vigorous  body.  Is  it  affirmed  that  a  man  derives  no  val- 
uable fact  from  the  study  of  the  classics  and  mathematics? 
For  the  sake  of  argument  we  grant  it;  but  then  we  de- 
clare that  he  derives  blessings  incomparably  superior  to  a 
world  of  facts;  namely,  a  strong,  active,  and  vigorous  mind. 


18  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

In  the  ablest  argument  to  which  I  ever  listened  against 
these  branches  of  study,  the  principal  reliance  was 
placed  upon  the  alleged  fact,  that  students  generally 
forget  their  classical  and  mathematical  acquisitions  soon 
after  they  leave  the  halls  of  science.  I  know  that  men 
rarely  think  of  Euclid  or  Virgil  when  they  are  engaged 
in  the  ordinary  avocations  of  life,  unless  they  are  engaged 
in  professions  which  require  an  application  of  them. 
But  what  of  that?  Has  the  youth  derived  no  benefit 
from  his  books  and  diagrams?  Shall  the  man  who  has 
safely  crossed  the  ocean  dry  shod,  affirm,  when  he  has 
landed,  and  has  no  more  need  of  transportation  over  the 
waves,  that  ships  are  of  no  consequence?  The  chief 
advantage  of  books  consists  in  their  bearing  the  soul 
across  the  gulf  which  separates  ignorance  from  knowl- 
edge. 

It  is  impossible  for  an  individual,  however  negligent 
he  may  be  in  relation  to  his  collegiate  studies,  to  deprive 
himself  of  their  advantages.  When  a  man  has  climbed 
the  ladder  whose  foot  is  on  the  ground,  and  whose  sum- 
mit is  in  the  sky,  though  every  round  beneath  him 
should  crumble  into  dust,  he  remains  in  his  lofty  eleva- 
tion. Learning  raises  a  man  into  the  region  of  imagina- 
tion, taste,  and  reason;  and  though  her  paths  may  be 
forgotten,  her  votary  remains  the  enraptured  spectator  of 
a  world  of  loveliness. 

Besides  the  instruction  to  which  we  have  referred,  the 
natural  sciences  should  receive  a  large  share  of  attention, 
particularly  philosophy,  chemistry,  botany,  physiology, 
geology.  These  sciences  are  of  especial  importance  to 
western  Americans. 

The  modern  languages  are  too  much  neglected  in  our 
literary  institutions  of  every  grade.  They  are  worthy  to 
be  studied  for  various  reasons,  but  chiefly  be«*use  they 
contain  much  valuable  information  in  every  department 


GENERAL    EDUCATION.  19 

«>t  science.  It  must  be  a  source  of  the  highest  satisfac- 
lion  to  the  physician  to  read  the  works  of  Bichat,  Ma- 
gendie,  or  Duchadela,  in  his  own  tongue,  or  to  the  divine 
to  peruse  the  works  of  the  renowned  Genevese  pastor  or 
the  amiable  and  elegant  Fenelon,  undiluted  by  trans- 
lation. 

It  appears  to  me  that  special  attention  should  be  given 
to  the  arts  of  speaking  and  writing.  In  this  land,  where 
every  man  is  liable  to  be  called  to  take  an  active  part  in 
the  political  discussions  which  agitate  the  country,  and 
even  to  represent  freemen  in  the  halls  of  legislation,  it  is 
highly  important  that  the  student  be  early  taught  to 
deliver  his  sentiments  fluently  and  with  effect.  When 
this  art  shall  be  more  generally  taught,  the  counsels  of 
wisdom  will  be  less  often  overwhelmed  by  the  declama- 
tions of  imbecility.  Writing  is  no  less  important  than 
speaking.  How  often  has  the  venerable  minister,  whose 
heart  was  holy  and  whose  mind  was  rich,  perished  from 
the  earth  without  leaving  any  thing  by  which  the  world 
might  be  improved  after  his  decease!  I  have  known  the 
physician,  whose  fame  extended  from  sea  to  sea,  ridiculed 
and  pitied,  because  his  composition  was  so  slovenly  and 
ungrammatical  that  it  scarcely  conveyed  the  thoughts  he 
wished  to  communicate.  Some  of  the  ablest  practition- 
ers that  ever  attended  the  bedside  of  the  sick  have  lived 
and  died  in  the  western  country.  Had  a  Hines  or  Go- 
forth  written  the  results  of  his  enlarged  experience  and 
valuable  reflections,  the  record  would  have  blessed  the 
world  long  after  the  tracing  hand  "had  forgotten  its 
cunning."  The  situation  of  our  western  fathers  in  their 
youth  precluded  the  acquisition  of  the  necessary  prelimi- 
nary education,  and  hence  their  valuable  knowledge  was 
limited  to  a  small  circle  within  the  generation  in  which 
they  lived,  and  their  names  will  be  forgotten  in  the  gen- 
eration which  shall  succeed.  They  may  be  excused — 


20 


EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 


pcaco  to  their  ashes ! — but  if  their  sons  do  not  bless  the 
world  with  the  pen,  on  (hem  and  on  their  teachers  must 
rest  an  onerous  responsibility. 

I  will  not  detail  all  the  sciences  which  ought  to  enter 
into  a  course  of  instruction;  but  before  I  leave  the  sub- 
ject I  will  drop  a  remark  in  relation  to  the  study  of  po- 
litical philosophy.  Our  own  Constitution  should  be 
studied  in  all  colleges,  seminaries,  aL1*  comn  on  schools. 
By  the  study  of  our  Constitution  I  do  r  ot  mean  the  bare 
reading  or  committing  of  its  articles,  but  the  compre- 
hending of  them  by  tracing  them  to  their  origin  through 
their  development  in  the  history  of  our  country,  and  in 
the  legislation  of  the  government.  I  am  happy  to  say 
that  we  have  text-books  prepared  to  our  hand  on  this 
subject,  and  adapted  to  every  class  of  scholars.  The 
extensive  dissemination  among  the  youth  of  our  country 
of  sound  and  ample  views  of  this  great  instrument  would 
do  more  to  save  our  institutions  from  destruction  than 
any  thing  that  can  be  devised. 

It  is  not,  however,  by  a  knowledge  of  books  merely 
that  a  mind  can  be  properly  educated.  The  mere  book- 
worm is  a  useless  animal,  and,  for  aught  that  he  does, 
might  as  well  have  never  lived.  He  who  would  have  a 
mind  properly  trained,  must  acquire  a  knowledge  of  men 
and  things.  He  must  learn  wisdom  from  books  and 
vales,  mountains  and  cataracts.  The  earth  and  seas 
must  be  questioned,  and  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  made 
to  yield  their  share  of  instruction.  The  child  should 
cultivate  acquaintance  with  nature,  and  be  taught  to  woo 
her  as  his  mistress;  and,  that  he  may  acquire  the  indis- 
pensable element  of  round-about  common  sense,  should 
be  allowed  to  have  free  collision  with  his  fellows. 

Moreover,  the  youth  should  be  made  to  emerge  from 
the  little  circle  of  self,  and  to  feel  that  he  is  an  inhabit- 
ant of  a  deep  and  beautiful  universe,  which  it  ;s  alike 


GENERAL    EDUCATION  2l 

his  duty  and  his  privilege  to  explore;  and  he  should  be 
brought  -up,  up  from  the  little  domicile  of  his  father,  and 
made  to  realize  that  he  is  a  member  of  the  great  family 
of  God,  and  that  it  is  his  duty  to  prepare  himself  to 
bless  the  world  and  all  the  future  generations  of  man- 
kind. 

Education  should  be  more  than  the  development  of 
the  intellect.  Man  is  a  compound  being,  and  every 
element  of  his  complex  structure  requires  to  be  evolved. 
It  has  been  the  fatal  error  of  mankind,  ever  since  the 
revival  of  letters,  to  regard  the  youth  as  a  mere  intel- 
lectual machine.  The  wants  of  the  body  have  been  over- 
looked. One  of  these  four  results  have  generally  fol- 
lowed :  Either  the  individual  has  become  disgusted  with 
the  paths  that  lead  to  fame,  and  retired  before  his  frame 
sank  beneath  his  toil;  or  he  has  become  diseased  and 
his  life  has  been  imbittered  with  pain  and  anguish;  or, 
third,  he  has  descended  to  a  premature  grave;  or,  lastly, 
he  has  become  an  idiot.  A  truant,  or  a  dunce,  or  one 
whose  constitution  is  as  brass,  may  live  under  college 
discipline;  but  woe  to  the  respectful  genius  who  submits 
to  college  commons  and  collegiate  restraints. 

Go  read  the  history  of  Genius.  It  is  a  history  of  in- 
firmities which  no  eye  can  trace  without  being  moistened 
with  tears.  Is  it  reasonable  to  destroy  our  usefulness  in 
cultivating  our  minds?  Is  it  right  to  disregard  the  laws 
which  God  has  written  legibly  in  the  liver  and  the  lungs? 
As  well  blot  out  the  decalogue  as  treat  with  contempt 
the  handwriting  of  God  on  the  visible  temple  in  which 
his  image  dwells.  Moreover,  if  man  be  disposed  to 
run  the  hazard  of  meeting  the  frowns  of  God  for  the 
violation  of  his  physical  laws,  and  be  willing  to  perish  a 
martyr  to  fame,  is  it  the  surest  way  to  attain  the  enviable 
summit* for  which  ambition  pants? 

How  often  do  we  see  the  man  of  giant  powers  and 


22  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

sanctified  feelings,  cultivated  in  the  highest  degree,  sink- 
ing into  the  grave  before  he  has  been  enabled  to  turn 
his  noble  powers  to  good  account  by  the  performance  of 
a  single  important  action !  There  is  scarce  a  cemetery 
that  does  not  read  unheeded  lessons  to  mankind  on  the 
folly  of  such  a  course.  Many  a  name  that  is  found  only 
on  the  humble  headstone  of  a  new-mown  grave  might 
have  been  transmitted  to  posterity  embalmed  in  unde- 
caying  glory,  had  its  possessor  regarded  the  fiat  of 
Jehovah  inscribed  in  the  constitution  of  his  earthly 
tabernacle. 

Again  :  from  a  neglect  of  the  body  there  often  results 
a  worse  consequence  than  death  itself.  The  mind  is 
influenced  by  the  body.  This  was  known  to  the  ancients, 
and  passed  into  a  proverb — mens  sana  in  corpore  sano. 
It  was  known  before  Rome  was  founded  by  one  who  said 
that  much  study  is  a  weariness  of  the  flesh.  I  have  seen 
the  mighty  intellect  gradually  weakened  by  unremitting 
toil,  till  second  childishness  and  mere  oblivion  succeeded 
Ulyssian  wisdom  and  Homeric  sublimity,  long  ere  the 
golden  bowl  was  broken  or  the  silver  cord  was  loosed. 

It  is  not  enough  to  develop  the  intellect  and  the  body. 
There  are  other  faculties  besides  the  merely  corporeal 
and  mental.  The  moral  faculties,  above  all  others,  are 
in  need  of  training.  The  physical  organs  are  the  serv- 
ants of  the  intellectual  powers,  but  both  are  subjected  to 
the  moral  and  higher  faculties.  In  consequence  of  the 
fall  the  latter  have  lost  much  of  their  power,  while  the 
mere  animal  propensities  have  acquired  preternatural 
momentum.  Hence,  the  highest  object  of  education  is 
t.o  develop  the  conscience  and  the  affections — those  ele- 
ments of  man's  nature  by  which  he  bears  the  image  of 
his  Creator,  and  which,  if  properly  cultivated,  will  qualify 
him  for  a  participation  in  the  happiness  of  heaven. 

It  is  astonishing  that  in  this  day  of  reform  it  should 


GENERAL    EDUCATION.  23 

be  thought  a  strange  doctrine,  that  education  should 
embrace  the  culture  of  the  heart.  Long  since  was  the 
question  settled.  It  has  been  so  regarded  by  the  great- 
est lights  in  every  age,  from  the  last  to  that  of  Aristotle 
Locke,  the  most  distinguished  of  modern  metaphysicians, 
says:  "I  place  virtue  as  the  first  and  most  necessary  of 
these  endowments  which  belong  to  a  man,"  etc.  Lord 
K aiiics  says,  "It  appears  unaccountable  that  our  teachers 
generally  have  directed  their  instructions  to  the  head 
with  so  little  attention  to  the  heart."  ''The  end  of 
learning,"  according  to  the  immortal  Milton,  "is  to  re- 
pair the  ruin  of  our  first  parents,  by  regaining  to  know 
God  aright,  and  out  of  that  knowledge  to  love  him,  to 
imitate  him,  to  be  like  him,  as  we  may  be  the  nearest  by 
possessing  ourselves  of  true  virtue,  which,  united  to  the 
heavenly  grace  of  faith,  makes  up  the  highest  per- 
fection." 

Many  other  illustrious  authorities  of  modern  time.8  might 
be  cited,  but  I  pass  to  cite  one  or  two  ancient  authorities 
Xenophon  tells  us  with  approbation  that  the  Persians, 
rather  than  make  their  children  learned,  taught  them  to 
be  virtuous,  and  instead  of  filling  their  heads  with  fine 
speculations,  taught  them  honesty,  and  sincerity,  and 
resjlution,  and  endeavored  to  make  them  wise  and  val- 
iant, just  and  temperate.  Lycurgus,  in  the  Constitution 
of  the  Lacaedemonian  Commonwealth,  took  less  care  about 
the  learning  than  the  lives  and  manners  of  the  children. 
Aristotle  surveyed  man  thoroughly.  He  was  a  great 
mind,  perhaps  the  greatest  the  world  has  ever  produced. 
It  delights  us  to  think  of  him.  It  makes  us  feel  that  we 
belong  to  a  noble  race,  and  that  man  can  hold  up  his 
head,  even  when  introduced  into  the  presence  of  super- 
nal beings.  The  name  of  Aristotle  will  be  pronounced 
with  reverence  long  as  the  noblest  associations  of  genius, 
virtue,  and  morality  can  reach  the  human  heart.  Philip 


24  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

of  Macedon,  upon  the  birth  of  Alexander,  wrote  to  Aria 
totle,  saying  that  he  thanked  the  gods  not  so  much  that 
they  had  given  him  a  son  as  that  they  had  given  him  at 
a  time  when  Aristotle  might  be  his  instructor.  Such 
was  the  veneration  in  which  he  was  held  by  the  greatest 
minds  of  his  age.  He  ruled  the  empire  of  mind  with 
undisputed  sway  for  nearly  fourteen  centuries,  and  even 
now  the  chief  acquisitions  of  the  Spanish  scholar  consist 
of  the  logic  and  philosophy  of  Aristotle.  This  giant 
mind  lifted  the  vail  which  hides  eternity  from  mortal 
vision,  and  beheld,  though  dimly,  its  realities — he  sa\» 
an  immortal  nature  in  man,  and  sought  to  frame  his  edu- 
cation so  as  to  suit  it. 

Who  does  not  feel  that  there  is  within  him  more  than 
thought  and  sensation?  Who  does  not  permit  his  mind 
to  go  forth  to  the  world  to  come,  and  inquire  within  him, 
how  shall  I  travel  up  through  the  unwasting  ages  before 
me? 

The  world  will  soon  be  educated.  It  has  been  said 
that  a  similar  progress  may  be  traced  in  the  general  mind 
to  what  we  observe  in  the  individual.  The  world  was 
once  an  infant,  tossed  upon  the  nurse's  arms — it  was 
hushed  with  a  lullaby,  "pleased  with  a  rattle,  tickled 
with  a  straw,"  and  next  she  sallied  forth  to  gather  flow- 
ers on  the  lawn,  and  gambol  over  the  mead,  and  next  she 
could  be  seen  creeping  like  a  snail  unwillingly  to  school; 
but  now  the  nations  of  the  earth  give  signs  that  the 
human  mind  has  passed  the  periods  of  infancy  and  juve- 
nescence;  that  upon  it  are  coming  the  marks  of  sobriety 
and  maturity,  the  spirit  of  inquiry,  of  thought,  of  ac- 
tion. The  croaker  cries  that  the  world  is  degenera- 
ting. Is  it  pride,  or  ambition,  or  vanity,  or  ignorance 
which  induces  me  to  say  that  he  knows  not  whereof  he 
affirms;  that  the  world,  take  it  altogether,  has  more  of 
majesty  in  her  form,  of  grace  in  her  mien,  of  vigor  in 


GENERAL    EDUCATION.  25 

her  footsteps,  of  fire  in  her  eye,  of  passion  in  her  heart, 
of  energy  in  her  mind,  than  she  ever  had  before?  True, 
her  old  garments  may  cling  to  her,  but  she  has  outgrown 
them ;  and  if  she  wear  them  it  is  because  of  her  poverty, 
Her  old  nurse  may  compel  her  to  rattle  her  childish  play- 
things, but  when  she  does  so  she  feels  ashamed — she  is 
no  longer  charmed  with  the  empty  sound. 

A  spirit  has  gone  forth  among  the  nations  which  de- 
mands universal  education.  It  comes  upon  the  earth 
like  the  atmosphere  we  breathe,  enveloping  land  and  sea. 
It  binds  like  the  principle  that  wheels  the  planets  in 
their  orbits.  Tyrants  tremble,  thrones  bow,  armies  stand 
still  before  it.  Man  will  be  educated.  On  this  point  the 
extremities  of  the  world  meet — antipodes  feel  in  unison — 
one  hemisphere  speaks  and  the  other  answers.  Man 
may  rise  against  it — avarice  may  utter  its  maledictions — 
superstition  may  rail — selfishness  may  exclaim,  interested 
nobility  condemn ;  but  it  comes.  The  decree  has  gone 
forth  that  man  shall  be  enlightened.  It  will  not  be  re- 
voked. It  is  the  voice  of  nature — it  is  the  voice  of  God. 
Vain  is  resistance — vain  the  arm  of  law — vain  the  scep- 
ter of  sovereignty — vain  the  barriers  of  caste.  They 
will  be  swept  like  the  dike  before  the  tide  when  a  nation 
is  ingulfed,  or  the  rampart  before  the  whirlwind  that  has 
aprooted  the  forest. 

If  man  is  to  be  educated  he  is  to  be  free.  Freedom 
has  always  kept  pace  with  the  progress  of  education. 
Egypt  was  once  free,  at  least  so  far  as  she  was  educated. 
She  had,  even  then,  many  slaves,  and  so  many  untutored 
sons.  Greece  was  once  free;  and  why?  Was  it  because 
her  soil  was  fertile,  and  her  valleys  and  her  streams 
lovely,  or  because  the  fresh  breezes  of  the  JEge&n  or  Io- 
nian seas  fanned  her?  No!  Her  scenes  are  as  charming 
now  as  they  were  then.  Greece  was  once  free,  but  it  was 
when  the  powers  of  her  body  and  mind  were  cultivated — 


26  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

when  imagination,  memory,  taste,  and  feeling — all  that 
was  bright  or  beautiful,  foul  or  terrific,  and  magnificent 
or  lovely  in  wondrous,  heaven-born,  exiled  man,  enjoyed 
an  ample  development  and  a  vigorous  life.  Fix  your  eye 
upon  that  colossal  power  issuing  from  the  east,  threaten- 
ing to  tame  the  spirit  of  Greece  and  reduce  her  to  slavery, 
by  inflicting  upon  her  sons  a  summary  and  awful  ven- 
f^»ance  for  an  insult  offered  to  the  scepter  of  Darius.  It 
reaches  to  the  heavens,  and  casts  a  shadow  upon  a  hemi- 
sphere. It  rocks  the  earth  beneath  its  tread,  and  threat- 
ens to  crush  a  nation  at  every  footfall.  How  can  a  few 
free  cities  in  Greece  resist?  Will  they  not  tamely  sub- 
mit without  a  struggle?  Nay.  The  husband  collects  his 
family  around  him,  bids  his  little  ones  prove  worthy  of 
their  father  after  he  shall  have  died  for  his  country, 
directs  his  wife,  after  the  battle,  to  marry  a  man  who 
shall  not  dishonor  her  first  husband,  and  marches  to  meet 
the  foe.  The  mother  calls  her  son  from  the  field,  and, 
suppressing  her  emotions,  sternly  says,  "Take  this  shield 
and  go  forth  to  battle.  Bring  it  back,  or  be  brought 
back  upon  it."  Now  turn  your  eye  to  the  pass  of  Ther- 
mopylae. See  that  little  band  of  three  hundred  Spartans 
resisting,  for  three  successive  days,  the  Persian  host  of 
five  millions;  and  when  at  last,  attacked  rear  and  front, 
they  proceed  to  glorious  death,  see  how  they  cut  down 
the  ranks  of  the  enemy  as  reapers  in  harvest  mow  the 
golden  grain ! 

Now  direct  your  attention  to  Salamis — mark  the  im 
mense  fleet  of  Xerxes  blocking  up  a  few  Grecian  vessels 
in  that  beautiful  bay,  determined  to  crush  them  at  a 
blow.  One  thousand  Persian  vessels  float  upon  the  waves, 
and  cast  a  bright  reflection  upon  the  waters  from  their 
glittering  prows.  Mark  those  few  Grecian  ships  sailing 
gracefully  down  the  bay;  see!  they  station  themselvea 
prow  to  prow  against  the  barbarians — they  commence  the 


GENERAL    EDUCATION.  27 

battle — they  plunge  into  the  sides  of  the  veering  foe; 
they  seize,  they  board,  they  grapple  with  the  enemy  body 
to  body.  And  now  the  fight  is  over — the  armament  of 
Xerxes  is  routed  and  scattered — the  maritime  power  of 
Persia  is  broken,  and  Greece  is  free.  Why  this  indomi- 
table spirit — this  deathless  love  of  freedom?  Greece 
was  then  educated.  That  was  the  period  when  the  song 
of  her  bard  was  as  the  song  of  the  nightingale — when  the 
voice  of  her  orator  was  as  the  voice  of  thunder,  and  the 
whole  mind  of  the  nation  breathed  an  atmosphere  of 
freshness  and  fragrance. 

Rome  was  once  free — once  mistress  of  the  world 
From  Gaul  and  Britain  to  Asia's  remotest  plains,  she 
pushed  her  conquering  march,  and  chained  the  subjuga- 
ted nations,  but  she  herself  was  free.  Why?  Her  mind 
was  developed  and  active.  Wisdom  sat  in  her  councils, 
eloquence  lingered  on  her  lips.  Her  legislation  was  for 
the  race — her  literature  for  all  time.  Her  poetry  fell 
upon  the  soul  soft  and  sweet  as  kisses  from  the  lips  of 
love.  Her  oratory  vibrated  upon  the  breeze  as  the  notes 
of  the  harp,  swept  by  an  angel's  hand. 

Trace  the  history  of  modern  Europe,  and  you  will  per- 
ceive that  rational  liberty  has  generally  kept  pace  with 
the  progress  of  general  education. 

Look  at  your  own  free  country — the  admiration  of  all 
lands,  the  glory  of  the  earth. 

Who  were  those,  that,  fleeing  from  persecution  in  the 
old  world,  sough!,  an  asylum  in  the  wilderness  of  the  new;' 
They  were  the  reading,  thinking  Puritans,  who,  on  their 
landing,  laid  the  broad  foundations  of  colleges,  acade- 
mies, and  schools.  Who  first  rose  against  British  op- 
pression on  our  own  shores?  Who  first  raised  the  stand- 
ard of  liberty?  whose  swords  first  leaped  from  their 
scabbards  for  its  defense  ?  whose  hearts  first  poured  forth 
their  blood  around  the  soil  in  which  it  was  planted? 


28  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAtS. 

Plains  of  Concord  and  Lexington,  tell  us!  Hights  ot 
Bunker,  speak  !  Who  first  kindled  the  spirit  of  the  Rev- 
olution all  over  the  land,  and  kept  the  flames  of  public 
indignation  burning  till  the  Revolution  was  consumma- 
ted ?  The  people  who  had  been  reared  in  temples  of  sci- 
ence, and  who  devised  and  put  into  execution  the  first 
system  of  general  education  the  world  ever  saw. 

The  angel  of  Liberty  presses  close  upon  the  heels  of 
the  angel  of  Light — and  no  sooner  does  the  latter  blow 
his  trumpet  than  the  blast  of  the  former  breaks  upon  the 
breeze.  The  education  of  the  world  will  as  surely  be 
accompanied  by  its  freedom  as  daylight  accompanies  the 
sun.  Let  a  man  know  and  feel  what  are  his  rights  and 
capacities,  and  he  is  no  longer  to  be  a  slave.  He  will 
govern  himself.  A  still  small  voice  speaks  to  every 
bosom  in  the  rational  creation,  bidding  it  be  free — telling 
it  to  enjoy  the  rights  which  Heaven  has  conferred,  and 
to  acknowledge  no  distinctions  but  such  as  God  has 
ordained. 

I  do  not  say  that  monarchical  governments  are  unneces- 
sary when  the  public  mind  is  ignorant.  I  think  the 
world's  history  shows  that  efforts  to  place  freedom  in 
advance  of  intelligence  have  proved  utter  failures.  When 
a  nation  is  untutored,  a  visible  and  imposing  embodiment 
of  law,  before  which  the  multitude  can  tremble  and  bow, 
maybe  a  useful  auxiliary  to  government;  a  Church  Es- 
tablishment may  be  proper  to  raise  up  advocates  of  truth ; 
a  nobility  may  be  requisite  to  secure  an  intelligent  legis- 
lature; a  standing  army  may  be  necessary  for  the  national 
defense :  but  once  let  a  people  be  educated,  and  they  are 
themselves  competent  to  all  these  purposes.  The  child 
needs  not  the  toy  when  the  season  of  manhood  arrives; 
the  youth  escaped  from  his  minority  will  dispense  with 
the  services  of  his  guardian. 

It  is  said  that  in  proportion  as  a  nation  becomes  en- 


GENERAL    EDUCATION  29 

lightened  her  distrust  in  her  government  will  diminish — 
that  she  will  perceive  the  beneficial  tendencies  of  gov- 
ernmental regulations — that  the  monarch  will  become 
wise  with  his  people,  and  will  correct  abuses  and  study 
public  prosperity  and  peace — that  crowns,  and  scepters, 
and  nobles  may  be  made  instruments  of  blessing  to  com- 
munity. To  all  this  there  is  one  answer:  The  wise  man 
will  not  commit  to  another  hand  rights  which  he  can  as 
well  exercise  himself;  or  trust  to  another  a  duty  which 
he  can  as  well  perform  without  extraneous  aid. 

The  spread  of  knowledge  will  but  extend  evil  if  it  be 
not  accompanied  with  religion.  Knowledge  is  power.  It 
is  so  to  the  saint  and  so  to  the  sinner;  it  is  to  the  devil 
what  it  is  to  the  angel.  In  itself  it  is  neither  good  nor 
evil — a  blessing  nor  a  curse;  but  like  the  sword,  it  derives 
its  character  from  the  direction  which  its  possessor  gives 
it.  A  sword  in  the  hands  of  a  demon,  infernal  or  incar- 
nate, would  be  an  unmitigated  curse;  in  the  hands  of  an 
angel  of  light,  it  would  be  an  undeviating  blessing.  The 
one  would  employ  it  to  destroy,  the  other  to  save. 

Increase  the  power  of  any  rational  being  before  he  is 
able  wisely  to  employ  it,  and  you  increase  his  sin,  and, 
by  consequence,  his  misery.  He  is  active;  he  will  em- 
ploy whatever  of  capacity  he  possesses.  The  more  his 
capacity  to  do,  if  he  do  evil,  the  more  his  transgression; 
the  greater  his  sin,  the  greater  his  misery.  A  poor  Ger- 
man declared  he  would  not  educate  his  family,  because 
as  soon  as  his  eldest  son  learned  to  write  he  counterfeited 
his  father's  name.  He  was  resolved  that  if  his  children 
were  inclined  to  do  evil,  their  ability  should  be  limited — 
they  should  be  rascals  upon  a  small  scale.  Experiments 
upon  an  extensive  field  in  some  of  the  nations  of  Europe 
have  demonstrated  that  crime,  instead  of  diminishing, 
actually  increases  with  the  extension  of  education,  unless 
that  education  be  accompanied  with  religious  training. 


30  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

This  is  precisely  what  might  be  expected.  The  evils 
which  deluge  the  world  are  not  to  be  traced  to  the  intel- 
lect— their  fountains  are  in  the  bosom.  "A  greater  than 
Solomon  has  said,"  from  within,  out  of  the  heart,  proceed 
"evil  thoughts,  adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,  false  wit- 
ness, blasphemies."  This  is  the  philosophy  of  truth — 
the  philosophy  to  which  every  hour  of  the  world's  expe- 
rience adds  confirmation — the  philosophy  of  God. 

The  heart  is  the  seat  of  the  moving  powers.  It  is  to 
the  man  what  the  pilot  is  to  the  vessel — it  gives  him  his 
direction;  the  intellectual  powers  are  the  mere  ma- 
chinery. How  vain  is  the  hope  of  the  world's  perfection 
by  means  of  its  education !  Let  knowledge  diffuse  its  rays 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth — will  sensuality,  and  avarice, 
and  ambition,  and  jealousy,  and  vanity,  and  pride,  and 
unbelief  be  destroyed,  or  even  reduced?  Nay,  they  will 
live  and  act;  and  act,  too,  in  a  broader  field,  with  a 
keener  eye,  with  a  deeper  wisdom,  with  a  more  refined 
art,  and  work  out  with  more  terrific  enginery  their 
desolating  effects.  Am  I  summoned  to  the  ancient 
sages  for  proofs  that  education  has  a  controlling  influence 
over  the  passions?  To  ancient  sages  let  us  go.  I  am 
willing  to  search  their  caves,  and  groves,  and  public  ways, 
and  private  walks,  as  with  a  lighted  candle.  I  know  that 
the  closer  the  examination  the  more  multiplied  the  evi- 
dences that  my  opinion  is  well  founded.  They  taught 
what  they  did  not  practice.  Their  wisdom  served  but  to 
refine  their  depravity  and  conceal  its  workings.  The 
fountains  of  iniquity  were  calmer  but  more  profound — 
the  streams  flowed  in  narrower  but  deeper  channels. 

There  is  one  apparent  exception — the  son  of  Sophro- 
niscus.  There  is  no  difficulty,  however,  in  accounting  for 
his  superiority  in  goodness  as  well  as  wisdom,  by  consid- 
ering that  the  true  light  enlighteneth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world.  A  ray  from  the  eternal  throne 


GENERAL    EDUCATION.  31 

fell  upon  his  eyeball — he  pursued  it — and  shall  we  deny 
that  it  led  him  to  that  Fountain  where  sin  is  washed 
away? 

Am  I  referred  to  modern  examples  of  distinguished 
greatness  unaccompanied  with  religious  feeling?  I  at- 
tend to  the  reference,  prefacing,  however,  that  we  must 
be  careful  to  distinguish  between  the  effects  of  other 
influences  and  those  of  purely  intellectual  education. 
Lord  Bacon  will  furnish  us  with  an  example  of  splendid 
endowments,  united  with  varied  learning.  What  was 
the  influence  of  his  peerless  intellect  upon  his  corrupt 
heart?  Only  to  make  its  workings  more  refined  and 
more  destructive.  Lord  Byron  is  an  example  of  surpass- 
ing greatness  in  an  another  department  of  intellectual 
exertion.  And  what  effect  did  his  education  have  upon 
his  character  and  happiness?  The  poet  has  expressed 
it.  He  "was  a  weary,  worn,  and  wretched  thing — a 
scorched,  and  desolate,  and  blasted  soul — a  gloomy  wil- 
derness of  dying  thought."  It  is  admitted  that  litera- 
ture has  a  tendency  to  refine  the  taste,  to  open  purer 
fountains  of  enjoyment  than  the  senses,  to  exert  a  favor- 
able influence  upon  the  habits,  to  humanize  and  soften 
the  character.  But  let  not  these  tendencies  be  trusted 
too  far;  it  may  be  doubted  whether  it  is  not  the  sur- 
rounding influence  of  Christianity,  and  not  the  intellect- 
ual habits  of  the  educated,  or  the  rank  they  hold  in 
society,  that  lifts  them  above  the  brutal  criminalities  of 
the  lower  classes.  It  is  the  philosophy  of  the  Bible,  that 
each  situation  in  life  has  its  peculiar  temptations.  "Give 
me  neither  poverty  nor  riches,  lest  I  grow  poor  and  steal, 
and  take  the  name  of  uiy  God  in  vain;  or  lest  I  grow 
rich,  and  deny  thee,  and  say,  who  is  the  Lord."  Theft 
and  blasphemy  are  the  cnmes  of  poverty,  and  pride  and 
infidelity  those  of  riches.  Who  shall  say  that  the  heart 
of  Byron  or  of  Bacon  is  less  abhorrent  in  the  eyes  of 


32  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYb. 

God,  or  less  destructive  in  its  influences  upon  man, 
than  that  of  the  poor  sensualist,  whose  excesses  are 
within  the  narrow  circle  of  a  few  feet?  The  latter  de- 
stroys himself;  the  former  works  the  eternal  undoing  of 
millions  besides  himself. 

You  may  educate  your  soul  without  religion,  but  you 
will  only  refine  your  misery.  You  may  polish  your  speech 
without  grace,  but  you  will  only  sweeten  the  food  of  the 
undying  worm.  You  may  render  brilliant  the  flames  that 
burn  within  your  bosom,  but  it  will  be  only  to  add  brill- 
iancy to  the  conflagrations  of  earth  and  hell.  Am  I 
challenged  to  a  comparison  of  educated  and  uneducated 
states?  I  accept  the  challenge.  Admitting,  for  argu- 
ment's sake,  that  some  cities  of  antiquity,  where  refine- 
ment was  found,  were  free  from  grosser  vices,  it  may  be 
asked,  was  not  their  superiority  in  moral  character  owing 
to  their  religion?  For  though  paganism  is  false,  it  has  a 
substratum  of  truth,  and  its  influences  in  restraining  the 
multitude  are  potent.  But  we  challenge  Athens,  or  Cor- 
inth, or  Rome,  in  her  attenuated  refinement,  to  escape 
from  the  charge  of  criminality,  as  brutal  as  disgraced  the 
darkest  barbarism  that  ever  found  a  place  on  earth. 

Does  more  recent  history  present  greater  difficulties  to 
our  hypothesis?  No;  we  rest  the  question  on  an  appeal 
to  the  vices  of  the  higher  walks  of  life,  and  to  the  his- 
tory of  revolutionary  France.  Let  the  world  tremble 
when  she  reflects,  that  education  will  enact  the  scenes 
of  such  a  revolution  all  over  the  earth,  unless  religion 
accompany  it. 

Look  around  you.  The  world  is  arming;  nations  inert 
for  ages  are  arousing  their  latent  energies,  bursting  their 
bonds,  enlisting  under  gallant  leaders,  and  preparing  for 
a  struggle  such  as  has  never  before  been  witnessed  on  the 
globe.  She  is  calling  the  powers  of  nature  to  her  aid. 
That  army  must  either  enter  into  the  service  of  the 


GENERAL    EDUCATION.  33 

prince  of  darkness,  or  enlist  under  the  banner  of  the 
King  of  kings. 

The  Church  must  determine  the  world's  course.  She 
may,  by  purifying  the  fountains  of  instruction,  give  a 
righteous  direction  to  enlightened  intellect;  or  by  neg- 
lecting them,  leave  infidelity  to  poison  them  all,  and 
lead  out  perverted  powers  to  tho  shock  of  battle  with  the 
Lord  of  hosts. 

3 


34  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 


Sjrmmtirg. 

RE  AT  is  the  diversity  among  human  minis;  so  great 
that  it  can  not  be  fully  accounted  for  by  education, 
association,  example — any  thing,  except  original  differ- 
ences of  mental  constitution.  These  differences  are 
owing,  not  to  the  introduction  of  new  elements,  but  to 
new  combinations;  such  combinations,  too,  are  as  end- 
less as  those  of  articulate  sounds  in  human  language. 
You  will  rarely  meet  with  a  man  in  whom  there  is  not  a 
tendency  to  excessive,  or  defective,  or  perverted  action 
in  some  faculty  or  class  of  faculties.  When  an  uncul- 
tivated mind  is  neither  of  great  strength  nor  marked  pecu- 
liarities, the  ordinary  intercourse  of  society  and  the  com- 
mon duties  of  life  may  be  sufficient  checks  to  its  wan- 
derings; but  when  a  great  genius  is  permitted  to  educate 
himself  he  usually  becomes  a  moral  monster.  Such  a 
one  may  have  great  learning,  merit,  success,  but  is  rarely 
capable  of  just  views,  of  safe  and  sober  judgment.  We 
might  show  the  evils  of  ill-balanced  mind,  by  tracing  its 
influences  either  upon  our  usefulness,  our  happiness,  or 
our  salvation.  That  I  be  not  tedious,  I  must  limit  my- 
self to  one  of  these  three.  Since  the  last  is  the  most 
important,  I  select  that.  Let  us  trace  the  connection  be- 
tween mental  and  religious  faith. 

I.  The  want  of  mental  balance  is  most  frequently  seen 
in  the  following  faculties;  namely,  faith,  attention,  ab- 
straction, and  imagination. 

1.  Belief  is  one  of  the  original  powers  of  the  mind, 


MENTAL    SYMMETRY.  35 

and,  like  all  others,  may  be  conferred  in  various  degrees; 
generally,  however,  it  is  strong  in  early  life,  so  much  so 
that  we  rarely  find  a  child  not  disposed  to  indiscriminate 
faith.  Not  till  frequently  deceived  do  men  learn  to 
doubt.  As  their  minds  mature,  however,  they  find  it 
necessary  to  examine  the  grounds  of  their  opinions,  and 
this  process  is  then  a  duty;  but  when  they  commence  it 
while  the  intellect  is  still  immature,  especially  if  under 
the  bias  of  depravity,  without  the  light  of  experience, 
and  under  the  influence  of  infidel  or  sensual  associates, 
they  are  very  likely  to  form  a  haliit  of  JouLtimj,  which 
finally  ends  in  contempt  of  sacred  things,  if  not  univer- 
sal skepticism.  Young  men  should  be  on  their  guard 
against  this  habit,  and  especially  in  these  republics, 
where  a  feeling  of  independence  is  considered  so  be- 
coming in  youth.  Very  few,  perhaps,  are  aware  to  how 
great  an  extent  the  power  of  belief  is  under  the  control 
of  habit;  they  may  learn  something  of  it  from  analogy. 
What  capability  is  not  strengthened  by  use,  and  weak- 
ened by  disuse?  That  power  which  can  make  the  con- 
science either  as  sensitive  as  the  apple  of  the  eye,  or  as 
senseless  as  the  cinder,  can  paralyze  or  galvanize  the  fac- 
ulty of  faith. 

2.  This  faculty  may  be  impaired  also  by  an  exclusive 
attention  to  the  exact  sciences,  which  accomplishes  the 
sad  result  in  various  ways.  It  narrows  the  field  of  mental 
vision.  How  feeble  the  eye  of  him  who  spends  life  in  a 
dark  room,  striking  at  minute  poi-nts,  compared  with  that 
A'  the  sailor,  accustomed  to  survey  the  broad  ocean  from 
the  mast-head  !  so  powerless  is  that  mental  eye  which  is 
trained  to  accurate  discriminations  and  nice  definition, 
in  comparison  with  one  which  takes  comprehensive  views. 
The  ijruit  mathematician,  when  he  takes  wide  surveys  of 
life  and  character,  much  more  when  he  approaches  that 
subject  which  fills  both  immensity  and  eternity,  may  be  a 


36  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

little  reasoner.  The  immortal  author  of  Celestial  Mechan 
ism — La  Place — is  an  impressive  illustration.  Illustri- 
ous beyond  comparison  as  a  professor  of  mathematics,  he 
was  perfectly  contemptible  as  a  statesman.  In  less  than 
six  weeks,  by  his  mistakes,  as  Minister  of  the  Home 
Department,  under  the  consulship,  he  forfeited  his  place. 
In  the  language  of  Napoleon,  "  His  mind  was  occupied 
with  subtilities,  his  notions  were  all  problematic,  his 
views  were  never  right,  and  he  carried  the  spirit  of  the 
infinitely  little  into  the  administration."  No  wonder  that 
he  had  not  sufficient  breadth  of  view  to  scan  the  Chris- 
tian evidences.  Moreover,  mathematical  studies  weaken 
faith  by  familiarizing  the  mind  to  indubitable  evidence. 
This  inclines  us  to  be  dissatisfied  with  every  thing  less. 
Demonstration  proceeds  by  regular  steps,  inseparably  con- 
nected, accurately  delineated,  and  leading  to  conclusions 
the  contradictories  of  which  are  absurd.  Moral  reason- 
ing advances  through  devious  ways,  by  steps  irregular, 
independent,  and  expressed  only  in  ambiguous  forms,  to 
propositions  the  opposites  of  which  imply  no  absurdity; 
hence,  he  who  has  long  and  steadily  looked  only  at  ab- 
stract ideas  and  their  relations,  will  be  unable  to  appre- 
ciate moral  proof,  however  strong,  as  he  who  should  spend 
years  gazing  upon  the  glowing  fires  of  Stromboli  would 
have  an  eye  insensible  to  the  soft  charms  of  earth  and 
skies. 

3.  Faith  may  be  impaired  by  the  habit  of  disputation. 
This  is  neither  uncommon  nor  difficult  to  be  acquired. 
That  energetic  exercise  of  the  mind  which  is  provoked 
by  an  antagonist  is  pleasurable,  the  applause  awarded  to 
superior  information  or  intellectual  prowess  is  very  agree- 
able, and  the  shout  of  victory  is  most  refreshing  to  de- 
praved human  nature.  Moreover,  some  men  are  prone  to 
battle  as  the  sparks  fly  upward.  When  such  have  weak 
muscles  and  strong  minds  they  fight,  like  certain  ani- 


MENTAL  SYMMETBY  37 

mals,  head  foremost,  and,  like  the  ram  of  prophetic  vi- 
sion, they  often  push  their  moral  horns  with  equal  facility 
in  opposite  points  of  compass.  Imagine  a  boy  of  good 
parts  and  pugnacious  spirit  among  inferior  minds  in  the 
district  school.  He  overcomes  in  debate,  one  after  an- 
other, all  around  him,  till,  flushed  with  success,  and  in- 
toxicated with  praise,  he  is  carried  by  his  comrades  from 
school-house  to  school-house,  as  a  game-cock  with  gaffles 
is  conveyed  to  the  neighboring  roosts.  At  length  he  is 
brought  to  college,  and  placed  in  a  society  which  assigns 
its  members,  without  reference  to  their  convictions,  the 
propositions  they  are  to  establish.  It  is  easy  to  predict 
the  character  of  mind  with  which  he  will  go  forth  into 
the  world.  There  are  facts  and  arguments  on  Loth  sides 
of  every  moral  question.  Such  a  question  can  only  be 
determined  by  the  mental  balance.  To  use  this  properly 
there  must  be  patient  observation,  careful  discrimination, 
and  a  steady  suspension  of  the  scales;  but  for  these 
operations  a  mind  under  the  influence  of  controversial 
training  is  incompetent.  The  only  two  questions  which 
any  subject  admits  of  are,  1.  What  is  the  truth?  2.  Is 
this  proposition  true  ?  The  former  is  that  of  the  philos- 
opher— it  leaves  the  mind  free  from  improper  bias,  and 
trains  it  to  honest  inference;  the  latter  is  the  question 
of  the  disputant — it  stimulates  the  pride  of  the  speaker, 
and  fits  his  mind  to  run  athwart  its  most  solemn  convic- 
tions, in  the  eager  search  for  middle  terms.  I  will  not 
say  that  the  office  of  the  disputant  is  never  useful,  nor 
that  it  may  not  be  safely  discharged  when  it  succeeds  a 
process  of  investigation;  but  I  do  affirm  that  a  contro- 
versial spirit,  leading  the  mind,  as  occasion  may  require, 
to  undervalue  perfect  evidence  and  overrate  imperfect,  to 
blend  things  of  different  species;  to  take  advantage  of 
the  ambiguities  of  language ;  to  overlook  facts  important 
to  the  issues,  and  bring  in  facts  irrelevant;  to  confound 


38  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

the  incidental  with  the  essential,  the  important  with 
the  trivial,  the  accidental  with  the  uniform;  to  invert 
the  order  of  sequences;  or  to  rush  rashly  to  general  con- 
clusions, has  a  tendency  not  only  to  mingle  truth  and 
error,  but  to  unsettle,  in  the  disputant's  own  mind,  the 
very  foundation  of  the  power  of  belief.  Talk  as  we  may 
about  the  irresistible  force  of  evidence,  we  all  know  that 
feeling  warps  the  judgment,  both  directly  moving  the 
will  to  put  the  intellect  in  a  wrong  relation  to  the  sub- 
ject, and  withhold  or  distort  the  proof  which  bears  upon 
it,  and  indirectly,  by  influencing  the  train  of  association 
and  giving  tone  to  the  mind.  To  have  a  perfect  impres- 
sion, we  need  both  a  perfect  seal  and  a  wax  of  proper 
consistence.  If  we  at  once  mar  the  seal  and  harden  the 
wax,  what  can  we  expect  ?  The  youth  who  leaves  schooJ 
a  practiced  debater  will,  in  all  probability,  not  only  be- 
come a  moral  porcupine,  the  annoyance  of  every  com- 
pany into  which  he  enters,  but,  by  degrees,  a  thorough- 
paced infidel  He  will  be  strongly  tempted  to  assail  the 
religion  of  his  fathers,  for  the  sake  of  always  having  an 
opportunity  to  gratify  his  propensity  for  combat  and  fond- 
ness for  display;  and,  by  repeatedly  distorting  the  Chris- 
tian evidences,  and  assuming  a  hostile  attitude  to  the 
Gospel,  he  will  finally  become  an  earnest  enemy  of  the 
faith. 

The  case  of  Chillingworth  is  an  illustration.  He 
would  often  walk  in  the  college  grove,  and  dispute  with 
any  scholar  he  met,  on  purpose  to  facilitate  and  make  the 
way  of  wrangling  common  with  him.  While  yet  a  youth, 
he  produced,  by  his  perpetual  disputation  on  religious 
subjects,  such  a  skeptical  state  of  mind  that  he  con- 
ceived it  impossible  to  arrive  at  just  views  of  religion. 
First  he  is  vindicator  of  the  Reformation,  and  the  assail- 
ant of  the  Pope ;  presently  he  enters  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  becomes  the  defender  of  her  faith;  again 


MENTAL    SYMMETRY.  39 

he  returns  to  Oxford,  and  becomes  the  champion  of  Prot- 
iStantism.  He  dwelt  on  the  borders  of  absolute  skepti- 
cism, if  we  may  believe  Lord  Clarendon,  who  says  Mr. 
Chilliogworth  had  spent  all  his  younger  days  in  disputa- 
tion, and  had  arrived  at  so  great  a  mastery  that  he  w.:s 
inferior  to  no  man  in  these  skirmishes,  but  had,  with  his 
notable  perfection  in  these  exercises,  contracted  such  an 
irresolution  and  habit  of  doubting,  that,  by  degrees,  he 
grew  confident  of  nothing.  He  was  a  great  disputing 
engine  without  an  engineer.  He  had  reason  enough,  as 
Wood  said,  to  convert  the  devil,  yet  not  enough  to  con- 
vert himself.  This  spirit  may  exist  in  the  Church ; 
foolish  questions,  and  genealogies,  and  strivings  about 
the  law,  and  doting  about  questions,  and  strifes  about 
words,  whereof  cometh  envy,  strife,  railing,  etc. — these 
are  indications  of  moral  cholera. 

But  skepticism  often  results  from  a  too  great  facility 
of  faith.  There  is  a  man  who  always  holds  the  creed  of 
the  preacher  he  last  heard.  Such  were  some  of  old 
" driven  about  by  every  wind  of  doctrine;  by  the  sleight 
of  men  and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby  they  lie  in  wait 
to  deceive."  As  you  ride  through  the  interior,  per- 
chance you  see  behind  you  a  portly,  well-dressed,  elderly 
gentleman,  mounted  on  a  bay  steed,  riding  rapidly,  as  if 
to  overtake  you.  He  is  soon  at  your  side,  making  your 
acquaintance.  You  perceive  by  his  portmanteau  that  he 
is  a  country  doctor,  by  his  countenance  that  he  is  a  sin- 
cere, good-natured  old  man,  and  by  his  conversation  that 
he  is  a  vain,  garrulous,  bookish,  self-made,  but  not  h-ilf- 
made  philosopher.  He  measures,  with  his  quick,  blac-k 
eye,  your  nose  and  chin,  and  describes  your  character  ac- 
cording to  Lavater;  he  surveys  your  cranium,  and  pro- 
nounces you  a  singer  according  to  (Jail.  He  inquires 
your  residence,  parentage,  and  purt-uit;  but  finding  it 
more  blessed  to  gicc  than  to  receive  information,  he  tell* 


40  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS 

you  the  names  and  history  of  the  settlers  as  you  ride  along, 
and,  when  the  village  comes  to  view,  he  points  out  who 
is  its  richest  and  who  is  its  poorest  inhabitant;  whc 
keeps  the  best  carriage  and  who  the  best  piano.  He 
quotes  Cicero,  Aristotle,  Darwin,  Hume,  Mohammed, 
and  St.  Paul;  he  would  that  he  was  worth  ten  thou- 
sand dollars!  and  anon  he  is  glad  he  is  not,  for  he  fears 
the  devil  would  set  him  at  work.  Presently  he  tells  you 
he  does  not  believe  there  is  any  devil,  and,  finally,  that 
he  devotes  his  leisure  moments  to  fighting  the  devil  and 
the  orthodox  clergy.  As  he  turns  the  corner  of  the 
street,  he  presses  you  to  call.  Being  delayed  a  day  or 
two  in  the  village,  you  inquire  into  the  doctor's  history, 
and  learn  that  at  eighteen  he  was  a  blacksmith,  at  twenty 
a  parson,  at  thirty  a  millwright,  at  forty  a  doctor,  at  fifty 
a  strolling  lecturer  on  the  quadruple  subject  of  temper- 
ance and  geography,  mnemonics  and  phrenology;  that 
he  has,  however,  seldom  had  but  one  occupation  at  a 
time,  finding  almost  every  year  some  new  path  to  wealth. 
In  the  year  1825  he  could  be  seen,  with  radiant  counte- 
nance, at  the  head  of  a  company  of  merry  youth,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Cuyahoga,  planting  yellow  tobacco ;  in 
1835  he  was  seen,  with  face  beaming  with  joy,  laying 
off  a  city  in  some  swamp  near  the  banks  of  the  Mau- 
mee ;  in  1838  he  is  on  the  borders  of  Lake  Erie,  with 
golden  hopes,  planting  moms  multicaulis  and  hatching 
silk  worms;  in  1840  he  is  manufacturing  beet-sugar  in 
the  oak-openings  of  Michigan ;  in  1847  he  is  volunteer- 
ing for  the  Mexican  war;  and  in  1849  off  for  Califor- 
nia. In  religion  he  has  tried  all  things,  without,  how- 
ever, holding  fast  to  any.  In  youth  he  is  a  Methodist 
exhorter,  thundering,  flashing,  denouncing,  and  pound- 
ing the  pulpit  without  mercy.  Another  decade  of  years, 
'and  lie  stands,  with  long  black  robe,  on  the  green  banks 
of  some  crystal  Jordan,  with  head  bathed  in  rich  sun- 


MENTAL    SYMMETftf.  41 

light,  and  knees  trembling  with  emotion,  while  he  ad- 
dresses the  multitude  that  have  gathered  upon  the 
bridge,  and  the  boys  that  hang  like  bunches  of  grapes 
from  the  surrounding  trees.  When  a  few  gray  hairs 
have  found  their  way  to  his  temple — a  Presbyterian 
elder,  he  is  leading  his  children  up  the  aisle  to  be 
dedicated  to  the  Father  of  mercies.  The  next  half 
decade  finds  him,  with  broad -brimmed  hat  and  drab  coat, 
sitting  in  silent  meeting,  till  the  proffered  hand  gives 
token  of  departure.  He  soon  becomes  a  Mormon,  and 
then  a  Millerite;  but,  ere  the  decade  is  half  out,  he  is 
a  boisterous  and  defiant  infidel,  madly  challenging,  in 
the  streets  and  in  the  papers,  all  and  sundry,  the  par- 
sons to  debate  with  him. 

Your  curiosity  prompts  you  to  call  upon  him,  and  you 
find  him  in  a  long  room,  lined  with  drugs,  books,  and  ap- 
paratus— books  rare  and  ill-assorted ;  drugs  botanical 
and  mineral,  in  doses  spoonful  and  infinitesimal;  and  ap- 
paratus to  cure  you  either  by  wind-power,  steam-power, 
or  water-power.  On  his  table  lies  the  Koran,  a  copy  of 
which  he  has  just  procured,  and  is  now  reading.  He 
talks  so  as  to  give  you  no  opportunity  to  reply;  and  to 
give  you  a  proof  of  his  boldness  and  skill,  he  assures 
you  that  the  last  time  he  was  at  Church  he  challenged 
the  successor  of  the  apostles  to  test  his  commission,  by 
taking  a  dose  of  arsenic.  You  leave  him  with  mingled 
pity  and  disgust,  fearing  that  he  is  a  hopeless  case;  but  a 
year  subsequent — inquiring  after  him — you  learn  that  he 
was  put  into  a  state  of  clairvoyance  and  heard  unutterable 
words,  and  since  that  has  been  a  devoted  Christian. 
Here  is  a  man  of  several  mental  vices,  the  chief  of  which 
is  a  tendency  to  believe  on  insufficient  evidence.  Nor 
is  he  raris  avis.  In  classic  story  we  read  of  one  whose 
body  was  so  light  that  he  was  obliged  to  put  lead  in  his 
bhoeo  to  prevent  the.  wind  from  blowing  him  over — fit 


42  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

emblem  he  of  many  minds;  and  such  minds,  unless 
very  favorably  situated,  are  pretty  sure  to  become  skep- 
tical. 

II.  The  want  of  mental  balance  is  found,  in  some 
cases,  in  the  faculty  of  attention.  Our  ideas  come  in 
troops,  and  their  character  depends  on  fixed  laws  beyond 
our  control.  They  gain  admittance  without  asking  con- 
sent, but  depend  for  entertainment  upon  the  will.  Our 
power  over  them  is  twofold.  We  can  place  the  mind  in 
a  region  populated  with  good  thoughts;  we  can  dismiss 
intruders  by  neglect,  and  detain  desired  guests  by  civil- 
ity. Attention  is  an  effort  to  detain  a  perception  in  ex- 
clusion of  others  which  solicit  notice.  This  faculty  is 
possessed  by  different  persons  in  various  degrees  of 
strength,  and  in  many  is  so  weak  as  to  be  unable  to  di- 
rect the  mind  steadily  to  any  object.  Such  a  one  passes 
life  as  in  a  pleasant  dream.  His  mind  is  on  the  sofa  to 
receive  calls  the  year  round;  as  the  thoughts  come  and 
go  it  seeks  neither  information  nor  profit  from  them, 
and,  its  effort  being  entertainment,  its  recollections  are 
like  images  drawn  on  the  bosom  of  the  wave.  If  all 
subjects  are  viewed  carelessly,  it  is  impossible  that  any 
but  the  most  superficial  should  be  understood.  Convic- 
tion requires  not  only  proof,  but  perception.  The  proof, 
even  of  religion,  is  not  so  obvious  as  to  force  itself  upon 
a  mind  which  gives  it  but  a  momentary  notice.  Though 
inattentive  men  may  give  revelation  their  assent,  they 
have  no  basis  of  conviction  to  sustain  them  in  the  hour 
of  temptation.  Some  men  of  this  class  blaspheme,  oth- 
ers "care  for  none  of  these  things;"  others  say  they  try 
to  think,  but  can  not.  When  they  would  meditate  upon 
divine  things,  even  on  tbe  day  of  rest  in  the  holy  place, 
or  at  the  hour  of  stillness,  in  the  retreat  of  secret  prayer, 
other  thoughts  rush  on  them,  and  they  find  their  minds 
like  the  fool's  wy««  M«i>y  oe  tb«»e  persons,  being  poo 


MENTAL    SYMMETRY. 


43 


eessed  of  some  good  mental  powers,  when  they  can  be 
brought  to  fix  their  attention,  form  correct  judgments; 
and,  since  common  topics  and  temporal  interests  press 
upon  them  constantly,  they  may  be  wise  in  little 
matters  and  judicious  in  worldly  concerns,  while  they  are 
fools  in  all  that  is  sublime,  and  neglectful  of  eternal  real- 
ities. 

This  class  is  numerous.  Go  into  the  streets  and  stores, 
and  you  find  multitudes  who  pay  attention  to  things  only 
as  they  are  forced  upon  them.  Because  politics,  fashion, 
and  trade  press  themselves  on  the  senses,  and  mix  them- 
selves with  the  passions,  they  are  politicians,  or  dandies, 
or  tradesmen ;  and  because  religion  does  not  obtrude  it- 
self on  them,  they  know  but  little  about  it;  they  go  to 
meeting  because  custom  or  weariness  leads  them  ;  they 
hear  of  redemption,  and  grace,  and  regeneration,  and 
they  suppose,  because  they  have  heard  these  terms  so 
often,  that  they  understand  them;  but  when  asked  to  de- 
fine, they  find  themselves  in  the  situation  of  St.  Austin 
defining  time,  who  said,  "  I  understood  all  about  it  be- 
fore I  was  asked,  but  now  I  know  nothing  of  it."  They, 
perhaps,  have  no  objection  to  religion,  and  can  hear  the 
preacher  without  offense,  or,  may  be,  as  one  who  has  a 
pleasant  voice,  and  plays  well  on  an  instrument;  but 
since  they  are  unmindful  of  his  words  they  are  unmoved 
by  them.  They  are  infidels,  as  the  modern  Aristophanes 
was.  Mr.  Boswell  asked  Dr..  Johnson  if  Foote  was  an 
infidel.  "He  is,"  said  the  Doctor,  "as  a  dog  is;  he 
never  thinks  on  the  subject."  This  species  of  infidel 
may  be  found  at  all  elevations  of  society,  but  particularly 
at  the  higher,  and  especially  in  that  portion  of  it  which 
has  been  raised  suddenly.  Of  such  it  may  often  be  said, 
"Their  houses  are  safe  from  fear,  neither  is  the  rod  ol 
God  upon  them;  they  send  forth  their  little  ones  like 
a  flock,  and  their  children  dance;  they  take  the  timbrel 


44  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAtS. 

and  iwp,  and  rejoice  at  the  sound  of  the  organ.  .  ^ 
Therefore  they  say  depart  from  us;  for  we  desire  not  the 
knowledge  of  thy  ways.  What  is  the  Almighty,  that  we 
should  serve  him  ?  or  what  profit  should  we  have  if  we 
pray  unto  him!"  Well  may  the  Psalmist  reason  with 
such  :  "  Understand,  ye  brutish  and  ye  fools,  when  will 
ye  be  wise?  He  that  planted  the  ear,  shall  he  not  hear? 
he  that  formed  the  eye,  shall  he  not  see  ?  he  that  chas- 
tiseth  the  heathen,  shall  not  he  correct?  he  that  teacheth 
man  knowledge,  shall  not  he  know?"  We  could  forgive 
the  beast  were  he  to  receive  his  food  without  gratitude,  and 
regard  his  master  without  attention;  but  "the  ox  know- 
eth  his  master,  and  the  ass  his  master's  crib."  WTe 
might  pardon  the  brute  should  he  murmur  in  the  midst 
of  abundance;  but,  while  "the  wild  ass  brays  not  in  the 
midst  of  his  grass,  and  the  ox  lows  not  over  his  fodder," 
the  thoughtless  sinner,  forgetful  of  his  almighty  Bene- 
factor, often  utters  blasphemies  over  his  table.  We  can 
forgive  the  bird  that  sinks  to  roost  at  evening  shade,  and 
rises  up  at  morning  light,  regardless  of  every  thing  but 
present  pleasure  and  present  pain — that  gives  no  atten- 
tion to  its  origin,  interest,  or  destiny;  but,  alas!  "the 
stork  knoweth  his  appointed  time,  and  the  turtle,  and 
the  crane,  and  the  swallow  the  time  of  their  coming," 
while  men,  endued  with  reason,  and  moral  sense,  and  an 
apprehension  of  God,  and  a  revelation  of  his  will,  can 
spend  a  long  life  absorbed  .in  the  petty  interests  of  life, 
and  give  no  attention  to  any  thing  which  does  not  grat- 
ify sense,  or  appetite,  or  animal  passion. 

III.  Sometimes  the  want  of  mental  balance  is  found 
in  the  faculty,  or  process,  if  you  please,  of  abstraction 
By  this  we  resolve  a  complex  idea,  and  separately  con- 
sider one  or  more  of  its  elements.  This  process  can 
scarce  be  overrated.  Without  it  neither  the  poet  nor 
the  artist  could  form  his  beautiful  creations.  His  power 


MENTAL    SYMMETRY  45 

of  combination  were  useless  without  materials.  Whence 
can  he  obtain  materials,  but  by  abstracting  from  complex 
ideas?  Without  it  we  could  have  no  philosophy;  for 
what  is  philosophy  but  generalization  ?  and  this  implies 
abstraction.  Without  it  we  could  have  no  reasoning,  at 
least  of  the  demonstrative  kind.  Without  it,  indeed, 
what  better  were  mankind  than  the  brute?  Deprive 
them  of  abstraction,  and  you  rob  them  of  language ;  de- 
prive them  of  language,  and  you  set  them  with  the  beasts 
of  the  field.  Though  all  human  minds  possess  it,  yet 
some  have  it  in  so  small  a  degree  that  they  rarely  attain 
to  comprehensive  views  or  general  truths.  They  survey 
the  fields  that  encompass  their  native  village  without 
ever  reaching  the  ideas  of  vegetation  or  germination ; 
they  amuse  themselves  with  the  cat  that  purs  at  their 
feet,  and  the  dog  that  bears  them  company,  without 
thinking  of  the  classes  and  orders  of  animated  nature; 
they  shiver  in  winter,  and  perspire  in  summer,  without 
any  notions  of  zones  and  latitudes;  they  whistle  with 
their  shopmates,  and  sing  songs  with  their  merry  wives, 
without  ever  reaching  the  great  idea  of  man ;  they  look 
up  to  the  heavens  without  seeing  God.  Whether  they 
mark  the  moon  walking  in  brightness,  or  the  stars  that 
glitter  in  her  train ;  whether  they  hail  the  rising  sun,  or 
repose  in  the  evening  beams;  whether  they  survey  the 
well-poised  central  orb,  or  the  planets  wheeling  in  their 
spheres,  they  see  naught  but  sights  charming  to  sense — 
no  goodness,  nor  order,  nor  might,  nor  design  ;  these  are 
all  abstractions.  Nor,  hence,  the  glorious  concrete  which 
they  imply — the  great  I  AM.  They  walk  the  earth,  01 
plow  and  plant  it,  or  mold  some  of  its  productions  into 
useful  or  beautiful  forms,  without  perceiving  the  distinc- 
tion between  the  instrument  and  the  agent,  the  muscle 
and  the  mind.  They  think  and  feel,  without  thinking 
themselves  up  to  the  idea  of  soul ;  they  seem  lost  in  the 


46  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

visible,  the  tangible,  the  temporal.  Of  such  the  poet 
speaks  in  these  words  : 

"  Fools  never  raise  their  thoughts  so  high : 
Like  brutes  they  live,  like  brutes  they  die, 
Like  brutes  they  flourish,  till  thy  breath 
Blasts  them  iu  everlasting  death." 

What  can  such  a  one  think  of  worship  in  spirit  and  in 
truth  ?  Would  you  have  him  adore  ?  You  must  give 
him  something  visible.  Would  you  have  him  worship? 
You  must  put  an  emblem  in  his  hands.  How  different 
the  Christian  philosopher!  He  garners  truth — abstract 
truth — wherever  he  turns;  he  emerges  from  the  limited 
circle  of  home  and  friends  to  survey  humanity,  and 
sympathize  with  its  wants  and  sorrows ;  he  distinguishes, 
not  only  between  the  vegetable  and  the  animal,  but  the 
animal  and  the  rational,  the  rational  and  the  spiritual. 
By  abstracting  evidences  of  design  from  the  face  of  na- 
ture, he  obtains  an  impressive  idea  of  an  intelligent 
First  Cause.  By  the  same  means  he  traces  the  wisdom, 
power,  and  goodness  of  the  Creator;  and,  adding  to 
them  the  idea  of  infinity  and  eternity  suggested  within 
him,  he  lives,  and  moves,  and  has  his  being  in  God.  It 
was  by  a  series  of  abstractions,  for  example,  that  Newton 
climbed  to  the  top  of  the  universe,  and  caught  that 
glimpse  of  God  which  made  him  adore  for  the  rest  of 
life.  By  the  same  process  he  learned  to  see,  like  Moses, 
Him  that  is  invisible  through  the  smoke  of  Sinai,  and, 
like  Paul,  Him  that  is  eternal  through  the  flesh  of  Jesus. 
Thus,  too,  an  ancient,  but  not  less  worthy  sage,  who 
looked  through  the  heavens  to  the  glory,  through  the 
firmament  to  the  hand,  through  the  sun  to  Him  that  set 
his  tabernacle;  who,  all  through  the  spheres,  heard  a 
voice,  and  all  through  the  earth  saw  a  line;  who,  when 
he  sought  to  cover  himself  with  darkness,  found  the 
night  turned  to  light  about  him,  and,  when  he  would 


MENTALSYMMETRY.  47 

bide  within  his  own  breast,  found  the  candle  of  the  Lord 
tracing  his  thought  afar  off.  Do  not  misunderstand  me. 
Men  do  not  become  Christians  by  abstraction,  but  by 
faith;  but  I  would  have  you  mark  how  abstraction  and 
its  attendant  processes  aid  faith,  and  how  the  absence 
or  imperfection  of  them  may  predispose  to  infidelity 
or  intrench  it.  The  best  gifts  may  be  perverted.  There 
is  a  devilish  abstraction  often  associated  with  great 
genius,  which  can  go  through  all  the  works  of  God  for- 
getful of  his  hand ;  can  carry  its  lamp  through  all  sci- 
ence without  seeing  him;  can  wing  its  way  to  all  worlds, 
and  sing  its  song  under  the  gate  of  heaven,  without 
thinking  of  him.  Hellish  metaphysics,  that  can  ab- 
stract, for  its  contemplation,  the  earth — God's  footstool — 
from  his  feet;  the  heaven — God's  throne — from  his  maj- 
esty; the  clouds — God's  chariot — from  his  presence;  the 
thunder  —  God's  voice — from  its  teachings;  the  wings 
of  the  wind,  on  which  he  walketh,  from  the  impress  of 
his  footsteps;  that  can  even  abstract  the  human  soul 
from  the  universal  spirit  in  which  it  breathes,  and  the 
universe  from  the  arms  which  bear  it  up. 

The  Almighty  has  mercifully  regarded  human  infirmi- 
ties. In  Paradise  he  walked  visibly  in  the  garden;  in 
the  patriarchal  dispensation  he  conversed  with  men  by 
his  angels,  and  gave  them  altars  and  sacrifices  for  his 
worship.  When  he  led  his  chosen  people  out  of  bond- 
age, he  put  a  cloud  before  them  by  day,  and  a  pillar  of 
tire  by  night.  When  he  gave  them  a  law,  he  did  it  in 
the  midst  of  thunder,  and  lightning,  and  smoke,  and  an 
audible  and  mysterious  voice.  All  this  was  adapted  to 
a  low  state  of  intellectual  cultivation,  in  which  the  mind 
was  taken  up  with  the  outer  world,  having  only  reached 
the  borders  of  the  region  of  abstract  thought.  In  the 
fullness  of  time,  Christ  came  to  preach  pence,  through 
his  blood,  in  accents  of  mercy.  Kveu  under  the  present 


48  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

dispensation  we  are  not  entirely  without  aids  for  the 
mind  in  its  ascent  to  spiritual  things.  We  have  church- 
es, Sabbaths,  ministers,  and  a  few  simple  but  significant 
symbols.  He  who  neglects  them  is  criminal;  so  he  who 
rests  in  them.  God  is  a  spirit.  The  case  of  the  heathen 
we  are  not  called  on  to  judge;  but,  surely,  we,  who  har- 
ness the  lightning  for  horses,  may  ascend  the  heavens  to 
worship.  The  world  is  hastening  to  another  dispensa- 
tion, in  which,  perhaps,  there  need  be  no  sanctuary  built 
by  hands;  for  no  one  shall  say  to  another,  "Know  ye  the 
Lord?"  We  are  called  on  to  prepare  for  this  state  of 
things,  or  for  one  analogous ;  for  in  the  world  where  men 
are  as  the  angels  of  God  they  need  no  candle,  neither 
light  of  the  sun,  for  the  Lord  God  giveth  them  light. 

IV.  The  want  of  mental  balance  is  often  found  in  the 
imagination — that  faculty  which,  electing,  with  a  nice 
perception,  from  the  train  of  associated  thought,  the 
beautiful  or  the  sublime,  combines  them,  with  a  delicate 
appreciation  of  relations,  in  enchanting  forms.  This  is 
the  artist  of  the  mind,  and  it  decorates  all  her  chambers 
with  pictures  and  statuary,  and  perfumes  them  with  pre- 
cious odors.  It  may  unbalance  the  mind  either  by  its  ex- 
cessive or  defective  action.  The  former  will  carry  it  from 
the  outer  world  to  wander  through  Eden  or  through  hell; 
the  latter  will  make  the  real  world  one  of  mere  blood  and 
bones,  of  granite  and  grass.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to 
treat  of  imagination  any  further  than  it  is  related  to  the 
reasoning  power;  nor  this,  only  so  far  as  to  show  its  influ- 
ence on  faith.  For  imagination  is  not  only  a  soother  of 
human  sorrows,  a  builder  of  joyous  homes,  an  enchantress 
leading  the  soul  up  the  steeps  of  lofty  conception  to 
bright  and  boundless  visions,  but,  in  its  sober  moods,  is 
the  handmaid  of  reason,  the  friend  of  God :  hence,  skep- 
ticism generally  denounces  and  affects  to  despise  it. 

Imagination  aids  faith  by  aiding  its  indispensable  con- 


MENTAL    SYMMETRY.  49 

dition — apprehension.  Every  description  is  an  outline 
merely,  which  imagination  must  fill  up,  to  give  it  resem- 
blance to  reality,  and  make  us  feel  the  force  of  analogy 
in  favor  of  its  truth.  It  is  needed  in  the  interpretation 
of  prophecy.  The  prophets  speak  in  figurative  language, 
and  their  words  can  not  be  properly  appreciated  by  one 
whose  imagination  is  torpid.  It  is  requisite  that  we  may 
feel  the  force  of  the  evidences  of  revelation.  The  exter- 
nal evidences  being  adapted  to  the  mass  of  mankind,  in 
whom  the  imagination  is  generally  strong,  he  who  re- 
presses this  power,  to  the  same  degree  puts  himself  out 
of  a  proper  relation  to  these  evidences.  The  internal 
evidences  are  founded  in  the  value  of  revelation;  and 
since  it  is  adapted  to  the  wants  of  man,  how  can  any  one 
fully  appreciate  it  who  is  unable  to  feel  the  great  heart 
of  humanity?  and  how  shall  one  do  this  without  the 
faculty  which  enables  us  to  rejoice  with  them  that  re- 
joice, and  weep  with  them  that  weep?  The  Bible  points 
to  scenes  on  high,  and  fancy  helps  faith  to  feel  the  pow 
ers  of  the  world  to  come. 

There  is  a  large  section  of  skeptical  minds  who,  by  an 
exclusive  attention  to  natural  science,  extinguish  all  that 
is  warming  and  expansive  in  the  soul.  These  men  would 
raise  children  as  they  do  hogs,  by  placing  them  in  favor 
able  circumstances  to  fatten,  and,  when  they  are  grown, 
would  measure  them  with  a  three-foot  rule,  and  weigh 
them  in  the  hay-scales;  would  estimate  their  hearts  by 
the  pulsations  at  their  wrists,  and  their  brains  by  an  elec- 
trometer. They  would  test  the  Bible  by  the  rule  of 
three,  and  estimate  piety  by  the  laws  of  physiology 
They  live  in  a  world  of  exclusive  matter,  where  all  util- 
ities are  measured  by  inches,  and  all  profit  and  loss  do- 
noted  by  dollars  and  cents.  Surely,  this  is  philosophy 
falsely  so  called. 

Equally   injurious   is  an   excessive    imagination.      By 


50  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

presenting  every  thing  in  distorted  proportions,  it  pre 
vents  a  correct  apprehension  of  any  thing;  divorcing  the 
heart  from  the  conduct,  it  unfits  us  for  a  right  estimate 
of  morality;  shunning  the  real  world,  it  destroys  our 
sympathy  with  man,  and  our  interests  in  what  concerns 
him — happy  if  it  do  not  press  us  to  the  borders  of  de- 
rangement. There  are  many  skeptics  of  this  class,  of 
whom  Rousseau  may  be  taken  as  a  type.  Geneva,  in  the 
early  part  of  the  last  century,  gave  birth  to  this  remark- 
able man.  His  mother  dying  young,  and  his  father  be- 
ing engaged  in  the  humble  duties  of  an  artisan,  his 
mind  was  permitted  to  grow  as  a  vegetable  in  the  wil- 
derness, deriving  nourishment  from  the  soil  in  which 
it  was  accidentally  placed,  and  sending  forth  its  branches 
without  direction  or  repression  from  human  skill.  At 
the  age  of  seven  he  was  an  eager  devourer  of  romances; 
at  eight  he  committed  Plutarch's  Lives  to  heart;  at  nine 
he  read  Tacitus  and  Grotius;  at  ten  he  was  placed  in  the 
care  of  a  country  clergyman;  and  at  fourteen  he  was  ap- 
prenticed to  an  engraver.  Running  away  from  his  mas- 
ter, he  wandered  upon  the  mountains  of  Savoy,  till  the 
prospect  of  starvation  induced  him  to  renounce  the 
Protestant  faith  for  the  sake  of  a  support  from  the 
mother  Church ;  placed  in  a  monastery,  he  soon  made 
his  escape,  and,  after  many  adventures,  at  length  found 
a  patroness  in  Madame  de  Warens,  of  Annecy,  with  whom 
he  remained  till  he  was  twenty.  He  then  went  to  France 
as  music  teacher,  in  which  capacity  he  maintained  him- 
self with  various  fortune  till  1742,  when  he  was  appointed 
secretary  to  the  French  embassador  of  Venice;  quarrel- 
ing with  his  employer,  he  returned  to  France  to  resume 
his  former  occupation,  and  devote  attention  to  natural 
science.  In  1750  he  commenced  author,  and  at  differ- 
ent but  not  distant  periods  he  composed  numerous 
works;  the  last  of  which  excited  so  much  opposition, 


MENTAL    SYMMETRY.  51 

that  he  found  it  difficult  to  procure  a  resting-place  for 
his  feet,  either  in  France  or  Switzerland.  In  a  misera- 
ble and  misanthropic  old  age,  and  after  a  fruitless,  aim- 
less, and  romantic,  though  gloomy  life,  he  found  a  grave 
in  the  Isle  of  Poplars.  Though  possessed  of  a  mind  of 
peerless  power,  a  heart  of  exquisite  tenderness,  a  style 
of  surpassing  beauty,  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  hu- 
man breast,  and  an  extensive  acquaintance  with  the 
world,  his  powers,  because  ill -balanced,  were  always  ques- 
tionably, often  perniciously,  employed. 

His  works  evince  knowledge  that  would  honor  Bacon, 
with  ignorance  that  would  disgrace  a  school-boy;  princi- 
ples worthy  of  Socrates,  with  sentiments  that  should 
shame  a  rake;  imaginings  gorgeous  as  Plato's,  mingled 
with  ravings  like  those  of  madness.  But,  to  be  more 
specific,  the  want  of  mental  balance  in  Kousseau  is  evi- 
dent both  from  his  opinions  and  conduct. 

1.  His   opinions  are    characterized   by   extravagance. 
His  first  essay,  which  drew  the  prize  of  the  Academy, 
was  written  to  prove  that  the  re-establishment  of  the  art? 
and  sciences  has  been  unfavorable   to  morality,   which 
was  evidently  a  hasty  induction.     In  his  essay  on  the  in- 
equalities among  mankind,  he  maintains  that  savage  life 
is  superior  to  civilized — a  notion   which,  being  contrary 
to  the  sober  judgment  of  the  enlightened  world,  no  well- 
informed,  well-balanced  head  could  adopt.     In   his  Eme- 
lius,  treating  of  education,   he  lays  down,   as  his  funda- 
mental principle,  that  every  thing  should  be  left  to  na- 
ture— a  principle  which  needs  but  to  be  stated  to  be  re- 
futed. 

2.  His  works  evince  inconsistency.      In  the  one  last 
noticed  he  draws  a  lively  and  affecting  picture  of  Jesus 
But  in  the  same  work  in  which  he  records  this   beautiful 
vindication  of  the  blessed  Jesus  and   his  Gospel,  he  at- 
tempts to  stab  both   to  the   heart,  by  representing  Christ 


52  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

as  an  impostor,  and  his  Gospel  as  founded  on  false  pre- 
tensions. 

3.  Absurdity.  Though  he  courted  flattery  and  rel- 
ished favor,  he  was  accustomed,  late  in  life,  to  insult 
those  who  offered  him  the  incense  of  their  praise,  and  to 
interpret  the  world's  approbation  of  him  as  a  persecution 
instituted  against  him  by  literary  men. 

His  conduct  bears  no  less  evident  marks  of  ill-disci- 
plined mind.  It  is  characterized  by  extravagance.  His 
demeanor  in  youth  provoked  his  father  to  drive  him 
from  home;  early  in  his  apprenticeship  he  steals  from 
his  master,  and  runs  away  to  avoid  the  consequences: 
next  we  hear  of  him  as  a  footman,  in  which  situation  he 
repeats  the  crime  of  theft,  adding  to  it  that  of  perjury; 
escaping  from  service  again,  he  is  an  outcast  and  a  vaga- 
bond ;  soon  we  see  him  seeking  shelter  and  food  in  a 
monastery,  and  anon  breaking  away  to  go  through  a  se- 
ries of  adventures,  till  necessity  brought  him  again  to 
the  door  of  the  Church.  But  these  are  his  years  of  boy- 
hood. Let  us  trace  his  manhood.  Dissatisfied  with  an 
occupation  of  his  own  choosing,  he  aspires  to  political 
favor;  receiving  it  at  the  hands  of  Montague,  he  quar- 
rels with  his  patron,  and  quits  in  disgust  a  post  he  had 
sought  with  avidity.  Becoming  an  author,  he  attracts 
the  popular  praise  by  an  opera,  and  then  turns  it  into  a 
storm  of  wrath  by  a  letter  on  French  music.  By  his 
work  on  education  he  draws  from  Parliament  upon  his 
favorite  pages  a  condemnation  to  the  flames,  and  upon 
his  person  a  sentence  of  imprisonment;  he  provokes  his 
native  city,  as  he  seeks  an  asylum  within  her  walls,  to 
close  her  gates  against  him,  and  send  her  hangman  to 
burn  his  writings;  he  rouses  the  populace  of  Neufchatel, 
the  city  of  his  refuge,  to  compel  him  to  flee  at  peril  of 
his  life;  causes  Berne  to  drive  him  from  Peter's  Island 
in  the  most  inclement  season  of  the  year;  and  induces 


MENTAL    SYMMETRY.  53 

England,  who  opened  a  peaceful  bosom  for  his  weary 
bead,  to  look  upon  his  retreating  footsteps  with  the  indig 
nation  due  to  a  flying  ingrate.  Persecution,  in  itself,  ia 
no  proof  of  a  want  of  duly-regulated  mind,  but  when  it 
comes  from  all  parties  it  is,  prima  facie.  Rousseau  was 
persecuted  alike  by  Catholic  France  and  Protestant  Ge- 
neva; by  fickle  Paris  and  steady  London;  by  pious 
bishops  and  infidel  philosophers;  by  the  unthinking 
crowd  and  the  meditative  Hume.  We  can  understand 
how  a  man  of  good  sense  may,  in  this  wicked  world,  in 
defense  of  some  high  and  holy  principle,  provoke  the  op- 
position of  all  parties,  but  not  how  such  a  one  can  do  so 
in  endeavoring  to  upset  all  righteous  principle. 

Kousseau's  conduct  also  is  stamped  with  inconsistency. 
He  writes  a  pastoral  for  the  stage,  and  then  inveighs 
bitterly  against  theatrical  corruption.  He  praises  integ- 
rity, yet  changes  his  religion  twice — once  for  bread,  and 
once  for  protection.  He  writes  a  treatise  on  education, 
and  commits  his  own  children  to  the  foundling  hospital. 
While  an  infidel  at  heart,  he  professes  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. Advocating  the  purest  morality,  he  is,  by  his 
own  confession,  a  thief,  a  liar,  and  a  debauchee.  It  wna 
at  an  advanced  age  that  he  said,  "I  have  been  a  rogue, 
and  am  still  so  for  trifles  which  I  had  rather  take  than 
ask  for."  In  reference  to  his  licentiousness,  his  perfidy, 
and  his  want  of  natural  affection,  nothing  need  be  said 
to  those  who  know  his  history. 

His  conduct,  in  many  particulars,  is  absurd.  While 
with  a  stubborn  infidelity  he  rejects  the  Christian  relig- 
ion, though  his  mind  perceives  its  evidence,  and  his 
heart  feels  its  purity,  he  receives  with  an  easy  faith  the 
baseless  systems  of  French  philosophy,  which  teach  that 
animal  vigor  is  the  perfection  of  man,  and  animal  pleas- 
ure the  acme  of  human  happiness.  He  maintains  the 
sufficiency  of  reason  to  discover  a  complete  and  couiforta- 


54  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

ble  scheme  of  natural  religion,  yet  confesses  himself  agi- 
tated and  distressed  with  his  doubts.  Professing  love 
for  men,  he  employs  his  matchless  arts  to  infuse  into 
their  minds  the  poison  which  corrupts  his  own.  Pre- 
tending to  teach  the  science  of  happiness,  he  curses  his 
own  birth  as  a  misfortune.  Priding  himself  upon  the 
inductive  philosophy,  he  amuses  himself  with  fanciful 
hypotheses.  Strange  compound  of  vice  and  virtue,  igno- 
rance and  wisdom,  prayer  and  blasphemy,  faith  and  skep- 
ticism!  It  is  easy  to  see  in  his  mind  the  preponder- 
ating influence  of  imagination.  Says  Madame  de  Stael, 
"I  believe  that  imagination  was  the  strongest  of  his 
faculties,  and  that  it  had  almost  absorbed  all  the  rest. 
He  dreamed  rather  than  existed ;  and  the  events  of  his 
life  might  be  said  more  properly  to  have  passed  in  his 
mind  than  without  him — 'a  mode  of  being'  which  did 
not  hinder  him  from  observing,  but  rendered  his  obser- 
vations erroneous.  His  imagination  sometimes  inter- 
posed between  his  reason  and  hi,  affections,  and  de- 
stroyed their  influence." 

A  few  questions  and  inferences,  and  I  have  done. 
Have  not  those  who  have  impaired  their  power  of  belief 
some  excuse  for  skepticism  ?  No  more  than  the  drunk- 
ard, who,  by  his  intemperance,  has  disqualified  himself 
for  the  practice  of  virtue.  Are  they  not,  however,  de- 
serving of  peculiar  sympathy  ?  No  more  than  the  Chris- 
tian, who  professes  Christ  in  prospect  of  the  stake;  the 
difficulty  of  belief  in  the  one  case  is  not  greater  than  the 
difficulty  of  obedience  in  the  other.  Is  not  the  case  of 
such  a  one  hopeless?  Nay;  because  the  will  has  power 
over  belief.  General  Taylor,  when  asked  the  secret  of 
his  success  at  Buena  Vista,  said,  "  During  all  that  bloody 
and  unequal  conflict,  I  never  allowed  myself  for  one  mo- 
ment to  doubt  that  I  should  be  victor;"  and  he  expressed 
in  these  words  a  truth  which  every  man  feels.  More- 


MENTAL    SYMMETRY.  55 

over,  the  skeptic  acts  in  common  affairs  on  doubtful  evi- 
dence. He  can  not  demonstrate  that  he  will  succeed  in 
business;  that  his  money  will  pass;  that  his  food  will 
nourish  him.  If  he  has  faith  enough  to  preserve  his 
natural  life  and  secure  his  temporal  welfare,  he  haa 
enough  to  secure  his  spiritual  life  and  provide  for  hia 
eternal  welfare. 

If  the  want  of  proper  mental  balance  disqualifies  for 
correct  judgment,  does  it  not  exonerate  us  from  all  blame 
for  our  errors?  Nay;  because  the  balancing  of  the  mind 
is  as  much  in  our  power  as  the  subjugation  of  the  affec- 
tions, or  the  regulation  of  the  life.  I  close  with  a  few 
inferences: 

1.  Though  a  mind  may  be  incapable  of  arriving  at  a 
correct  judgment,  it  may,  nevertheless,  by  reason  of  the 
charms  of  eloquence,  or  other  advantages  which  it  may 
possess,  be  the  means  of  misleading  others.     Rousseau's 
essays  upon  the  effect  of  the  sciences,  and  the  origin  and 
progress  of  society,  were  among  the  fruitful  seeds  whence 
sprung  the  French  Revolution    of   1789 — seeds   which 
have  reproduced  themselves  in  the  Revolutions  of  1830 
and  1848;  mere  logical  sequences  of  that  of  1789,  and 
which  are  now  leavening  the  whole  mind  of  Europe,  not 
with  the  principles  of  rational  liberty,  but  with  the  vari- 
ous forms  of  socialism,  radicalism,  and  red  revolution- 
ism. 

2.  The  friend  of  man  should  aim  not  merely  at  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge,  but  at  the  proper  training  of 
mind.     Schools,  presses,  books,  lyceums,  lectures  are  not 
enough.     We  must  have  institutions  with  courses  of  in- 
struction so  arranged  as  to  produce  well-proportioned  and 
well-regulated  intellect. 

3.  Nor  is  the  regulation  of  the  intellect  all  that  is  nec- 
essary.    The  sensibilities  and  the  will  must  be  developed 
and  trained.     The  intellect  itself  is  often  well  balanced. 


56  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

How  rarely  does  the  world  produce  a  well- developed 
man  !  Look  into  the  Bible,  and  you  may  easily  find  a 
person  distinguished  in  one  or  more  particulars.  A  Pe- 
ter, for  example,  gifted  both  in  intellect  and  sensibilities, 
but  deficient  in  will;  a  Solomon,  mighty  in  intellect  and 
will,  but  wanting  in  sensibilities.  Ilarely  do  you  meet 
with  a  Moses  or  a  Paul,  equally  able  to  reach  a  conclu- 
sion, feel  an  obligation,  or  execute  a  purpose.  Look  into 
profane  history,  and  you  meet  the  same  difficulty.  There 
are  Aristotles  who  reason ;  Sapphos  who  can  sing  you  al- 
most into  delirium  with  their  utterances  of  intense  emo- 
tion ;  and  Alexanders  who  put  forth  will,  till  you  tremble 
as  in  the  presence  of  the  Almighty;  but  not  often  do 
we  meet  with  a  Socrates,  presenting,  in  fair  and  beauti- 
ful proportions,  all  the  capacities  and  susceptibilities  of 
exalted  manhood.  Nor  have  modern  nations,  with  all 
their  boasted  advancements,  been  more  fortunate  than 
ancient.  Here  are  the  Bacons,  with  peerless  reason; 
there  the  Napoleons,  with  matchless  will ;  and  there  the 
Byrons,  with  morbid  passions;  but  where  are  the  Lu- 
thers — good,  sound,  symmetrical  men  ? 

4.  The  tendencies  of  the  age  seem  to  oppose  the  full 
development  of  humanity.  Let  me  be  understood.  I  re- 
fer not  now  to  the  proposed  improvements  in  education, 
which  have  a  direct  tendency  to  make  monsters  instead 
of  men ;  but  to  the  progressive  division  of  labor.  It  is 
separating  society  into  castes  as  distinct  as  those  of  India. 
There  is  one  class  running  into  brain,  another  into 
tongue,  another  into  eye,  another  into  foot,  and  another 
into  hand,  so  that  it  will  soon  take  the  whole  human  race 
to  make  one  great  human  animal.  The  different  classes 
are  like  so  many  wheels  in  some  great  complicated  ma- 
chine, each  one  worthless  without  the  rest,  and  each  in- 
dividual, instead  of  being  the  world  in  epitome,  is  like  a 
cog  in  a  cog-wheel.  I  grant  that  this  division  of  labor 


MENTAL    SYMMETRY.  57 

secures  wealth,  art,  and  civilization ;  and  if  the  great  ob- 
ject of  God  in  creating  man  was  to  beautify  the  world,  I 
would  have  no  objection;  but  if  not?  God  does  not  cre- 
ate man  for  the  world,  but  the  world  for  man. 


r>8 


EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 


ft  I*  Innu 

AY,  there  is  an  inner  world,  and  into  it  I  would  invite 
you.  I  would  not  depreciate  the  outer;  it  is  worthy 
to  be  occupied — worthy  to  be  studied,  even  by  angels — 
worthy,  though  cursed,  of  its  almighty  Maker;  its 
paths — so  full  of  melody,  and  fragrance,  and  beauty — 
are  fitted  to  lead  to  heaven,  and  the  starry  vault  which 
overhangs  them  is  a  suitable  portico  to  God's  eternal 
temple.  Praised  be  God  for  the  world  of  matter,  and  all 
its  accompaniments! — for  the  air,  which  not  only  fans 
the  lungs  and  purifies  the  stream  of  life,  but,  at  our 
bidding,  wafts  our  most  secret  thoughts  and  feelings  to 
our  beloved  fellow-minds;  for  the  waters,  which  not  only 
fertilize  and  refresh  the  earth,  but  bind  its  continents 
and  islands  into  one  brotherhood;  for  the  light,  whose 
vibrations  enable  us  to  touch  the  most  distant  planet,  and 
whose  rich  beams  overspread  both  earth  and  sky  with 
charms ! 

"  My  heart  leaps  up  when  I  behold 

A  rainbow  in  the  sky ; 
So  was  it  when  my  life  began, 
So  is  it  now  I  am  a  man; 
So  let  it  be  when  I  grow  old, 

Or  let  me  die."  WORDSWORTH. 

Praised  be  God  for  the  body  of  mysterious  senses  and 
capacities — worthy  to  be  the  servant  of  a  rational  soul 
during  its  earthly  pilgrimage,  and,  after  having  been 
purified  in  the  tomb,  to  become  a  partaker  of  her  ever- 
lasting life ! 


THE    INNER    WORLD.  59 

But  there  is  another  world — a  world  which  the  "vul- 
/ure's  eye  hath  not  seen  and  the  lion's  whelps  have  not 
trodden" — a  world  whence  float  all  those  thoughts  that 
How  over  the  universe  and  make  it  a  volume  of  truth — a 
world  in  which,  scorning  the  present,  we  range  at  will 
the  future  or  the  past,  and,  heedless  of  place,  we  share 
infinity  with  God. 

When  shall  we  enter  into  it  ?  Not  prematurely :  "  tarry 
at  Jericho  till  your  beard  be  grown."  Nature  designs 
that  the  early  years  of  life  should  be  devoted  chiefly  to 
the  development  of  the  body;  hence  she  entices  her  new- 
born man  to  the  green  bosom  of  the  earth,  and  the  warm 
embraces  of  the  sun,  and  the  full  baptism  of  the  fresh 
and  fragrant  air;  hence,  too,  she  fires  him  with  irresisti- 
ble longings  to  see,  to  taste,  to  feel,  to  leap  exulting  in 
his  new-made  powers.  Thus  she  nourishes,  and  cher- 
ishes, and  molds  him  into  man;  thus  she  gives  him 

"  A  spirit  to  her  rocks  akin, 
The  eye  of  the  hawk  and  the  fire  therein." 

At  the  same  time  she  fences  up  the  borders  of  the  inner 
world.  Meanwhile  the  goodly  land  of  thought  is  germ- 
inating; and  about  the  time  of  its  first  ripe  grapes,  when 
the  outer  world  loses  some  of  its  charms,  let  the  inner 
open  its  gates.  This  opening,  however,  requires  pa- 
tience, perseverance,  retirement.  Perceptions  being  more 
vivid  than  conceptions,  we  can  not  without  effort  attend 
to  the  latter  in  exclusion  of  the  former.  When  we  turn 
the  mind's  eye  inward,  we  must  either  resign  ourselves 
to  the  train  of  suggested  thought  from  which  we  awake 
as  from  a  dream,  or  we  must  fix  our  attention  upon  some 
one  of  the  series,  in  which  case  we  soon  become  weary, 
as  one  listening  to  the  same  frequently-repeated  note. 
If  we  attempt  to  analyze  our  mental  state  we  become  per- 
plexed; for  although  in  the  outer  world  we  are  familiar 
with  the  succession  of  events,  in  the  inner  we  find  all  at 


60  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

first  in  confusion.  No  wonder  we  usually  remain  in  the 
wilderness  of  external  things  till  some  strong  passion,  or 
sense  of  duty,  or  accidental  circumstance,  impels  us  in- 
ward. Alas!  how  many  pass  through  life  without  scarce 
feeling  that  there  is  a  world  within! 

Vaucauson,  the  celebrated  mechanician,  had  his  tasto 
for  mechanics  excited  accidentally.  In  his  boyhood  he 
was  frequently  shut  up  in  a  room  where  there  was  noth- 
ing but  a  clock;  to  amuse  himself  he  studied  its  con- 
struction, till,  at  length,  he  became  acquainted  with  its 
parts  and  their  relations  and  uses.  Ever  afterward  he 
found  Ins-delight  in  mechanics. 

Happy  for  many  a  man  would  it  be  if  he  could  be  shut 
up  where  there  was  not  even  a  clock,  so  that  he  might  be 
forced  to  examine  the  wonderful  machinery  of  the  spir- 
itual time-piece — the  immortal  soul — till  he  understood 
its  parts,  relations,  and  uses!  How  much  more  likely 
would  he  be  to  set  it  by  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  that 
its  pendulum  might  swing  in  symphony  with  the  spheres, 
and  its  hands  go  round  the  circle  of  duty  in  harmony 
with  the  heavens !  Habitual  inattention  to  the  outer 
world  greatly  promotes  attention  to  the  inner.  The  more 
we  live  the  life  of  sensation  the  less  we  do  the  life  of 
reflection.  "For  the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  spirit,  and 
the  spirit  against  the  flesh,  for  they  are  contrary  to  each 
other."  It  is  said  of  Democritus  that  he  put  out  his 
eyes  in  order  that  he  might  study  philosophy.  The  story 
is  probably  untrue;  but  it  is  certain  that  Poesy  put  out 
the  eyes  of  Homer  and  of  Milton  before  she  lifted  the 
vail  from  their  glorious  spirits.  I  pity  you  not,  blind 
old  bard  of  Scio's  rocky  isle,  as  you  roll  in  vain  your 
quenched  eyeballs  to  find  a  ray  of  light,  for  so  much  the 
more  melodious  was  the  epic  that  you  warbled  through 
the  listening  cities  of  your  native  seas!  Nor  thee,  thou 
second  Homer,  but  greater  than  the  first,  do  I  pity,  as 


THE     INNER    WORLD.  61 

you  sweep  from  your  well-tuned  lyre  those  plaintive  pen 
ta  meters: 

"  Thus  with  the  year 
Seasons  return ;  but  not  to  me  returns 
Day,  or  the  sweet  approach  of  even  or  morn, 
Or  sight  of  vernal  bloom  or  summer's  rose, 
Or  flocks,  or  herds,  or  human  face  divine ; 
But  cloud  instead  and  ever-during  dark 
Surrounds  me." 

NJ;  I  pity  you  not,  because  so  much  the  more  didst  thou 
wander  " where  the  Muses  haunt" — so  much  the  more 
did  "celestial  light  shine  inward,"  and  raise  up  things 
invisible  to  mortal  sight. 

The  patience,  study,  and  retirement  requisite  that  we 
may  look  inward  will  be  well  rewarded;  for, 

1.  The  inner  world  is  a  new  one.  The  youth  usually 
knows  as  little  of  it  as  of  foreign  land.  He  has,  it  is 
true,  vague  ideas  of  it,  as  he  has  of  orange  groves  and 
palm-trees  of  which  he  has  read  but  never  seen.  It  were 
glorious  to  discover  even  an  unknown  island.  Columbus, 
as  he  was  approaching  the  New  World,  was  accustomed 
to  close  each  day,  in  the  midst  of  his  assembled  sailors, 
Q.I  duck,  with  a  solemn  meditation  and  a  hymn  of  praise 
to  God.  On  the  evening  before  he  saw  the  land,  and 
while  he  was  gazing  at  the  indications  of  its  near  pres- 
ence, he  sat  musing  at  the  stern,  and  as  he  inquired, 
"  What  is  the  world  upon  which  I  am  entering?  who  are 
its  inhabitants?  how  will  they  receive  me?  and  what  will 
be  the  consequences  of  my  landing  to  myself,  to  Spain, 
to  the  world?"  his  feelings  became  overwhelming.  But 
within  your  breast,  immortal  man,  there  is  a  still  more 
glorious  world.  Columbus  could  take  possession  of  Amer- 
ica in  the  name  of  his  sovereign  only;  he  was  to  leave  it 
almost  as  soon  as  he  touched  it;  he  could  not  give  sc 
much  as  his  own  name  to  its  shores.  The  undiscovered 
continents  of  thought  that  lie  within  your  breast  you 


62  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

may  name,  and  hold,  and  occupy  at  will  and  forever 
That  country  which  Columbus  discovered  was  seen  by 
millions  of  eyes  before  he  saw  it,  and  has  been  by  mill- 
ions since;  but  the  world  within  you  is  unlike  all  others, 
and  no  eye  but  yours  can  behold  its  scenes  or  trace  its 
revolutions,  except  the  all-seeing  One. 

2.  This  world  is  one  of  beauty.  Lovely  as  is  the  outer 
world,  it  has  no  beauty  in  comparison  with  the  exceeding 
beauty  of  the  inner.  The  beauty  of  material  things  is 
but  one;  that  of  the  mind  is  threefold — the  beauty  of 
the  present,  of  the  past,  and  of  the  future.  I  know  that 
not  all  within  is  beautiful.  There  are  marks  even  in  the 
soul  of  dislocation  and  disorder;  there  are  chasms,  and 
storms,  and  deserts,  often  more  awful  than  those  of  the 
external  world;  yet  over  the  whole  a  grandeur,  like  to 
that  of  archangel  ruined,  reigns.  The  heavens  and  the 
earth  are  drawn  within  us  in  those  forms  in  which  the 
soul  has  most  delight;  the  past,  too,  is  there,  according 
to  the  affinities  of  our  minds.  It  is  prevailing  disposi- 
tion that  paints  the  panorama  of  remembered  thought, 
and  cherished  joys  that  display  the  figures  of  the  fore- 
ground; and  as  the  canvas  of  memory  stretches,  the 
more  charming  scenes  of  the  foreground  acquire  greater 
relative  prominence,  so  that  remembrance  gives  us,  with 
ever-increasing  vividness,  the  scenes  of  our  earlier  and 
happier  hours,  when  Nature  presented  itself  with  all  the 
freshness,  and  beauty,  and  purity  of  youth  to  our  light 
and  loving  hearts.  The  village  green  of  our  boyish 
gambols,  and  the  oak  which  first  shaded  our  heads,  and 
the  bower  where  we  first  told  our  love,  are  the  first  ob- 
jects on  which  the  inner  eye  rests  when  it  turns  to  the 
past.  And  then  the  persons — who  are  they?  Those 
whom  we  first  loved — and  how?  in  their  happiest  moods 
and  their  sweetest  expression.  Do  they  now  slumber  in 
the  narrow  house?  We  see  them  not  writhing  in  the 


THE    INNER    WORLD.  63 

agonies  of  the  death-bed,  or  cold  and  motionless  in  the 
shroud.  Memory  can  say,  "0,  Death,  where  is  thy  sting! 
O,  Grave,  where  is  thy  victory!"  for  she  gives  us  back 
the  dead  even  in  the  loveliest  forms  they  wore.  The 
poor,  bereaved  Irish  emigrant,  when  he  forgets  the  deso- 
lation of  the  present,  and  looks  into  the  past,  sees  not 
the  darkness  of  the  tomb.  Hark! 

"  I  am  sitting  on  the  stile,  Mary, 
Where  we  sat  side  by  side." 

What  does  he  see?     Hark! 

"  And  the  springing  corn,  and  the  bright  May  morn, 
When  first  you  were  nfy  bride." 

Even  though  the  specters  of  past  sins  and  the  shadows 
of  departed  sorrows  arise,  they  come  before  us  with  soft- 
ened and  solacing  tints,  and  melt  the  soul  into  a  salutary 
tenderness,  which  is  often  felt  to  be  luxurious.  The 
future,  too,  is  within.  Hope — the  busy  artist  of  the 
mind — runs  forward  and  paints  the  approaching  scenes 
in  light;  and  though  the  picture  perpetually  vanishes  or 
darkens  behind  him,  the  mental  limner  never  tires,  but 
rushes  onward,  ever  busy  and  ever  brightening  the  future 
The  beauties  of  nature  are  fixed;  not  so  the  beauties  of 
the  mind — they  are  changeable  at  will.  As  the  genius 
pores  over  his  mental  treasures, 

"  Anon  ten  thousand  shapes, 
Like  specters  trooping  to  the  wizard's  call, 
Flit  swift  before  him.     From  the  womb  of  earth, 
From  ocean's  bed  they  come;  the  eternal  heavens 
Disclose  their  splendors,  and  the  dark  abyss 
Pours  out  her  births  unknown.     With  fixed  gaze 
He  marks  the  rising  phantoms:  now  compares 
Their  different  forms,  now  blends  them,  now  divides, 
Enlarges,  and  extenuates  ti\  turns, 
()p|>oses,  ranges  in  fantastic  baud*, 
And  infinitely  varies.'* 

The  beauties  of  nature  are  attended  with  deformities. 
The  mind  can  present  us  with  thornless  roses  and  uu- 


64  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

mingled  fragrance.  Milton's  Eden  blooms  with  beauties 
that  can  be  combined  only  in  the  soul. 

The  beauty  of  the  inner  world  is  an  independent  one 
It  is  only  poetically  that  matter  can  be  said  to  have 
beauty  at  all;  philosophically,  beauty,  like  color  and  fra 
grance,  belongs  exclusively  to  spirit — 

"  Mind  alone.    Bear  witness  earth  and  heaven, 
The  living  fountain  in  itself  contains 
Of  beauteous  and  sublime!     Here,  hand  in  hand, 
Sit  paramount  the  graces.     Here  enthroned 
Celestial  Venus,  with  divinest  airs, 
Invites  the  soul  to  never-fading  joys." 

The  outward  world,  I  know,  wakes  up  the  beauty  slum- 
bering within;  but,  in  return  for  the  favor,  the  soul 
throws  its  own  charms  over  its  senseless  forms.  He  who 
would  see  a  paradise  without  must  first  make  a  paradise 
within;  then  as  his  soul  passes  out  through  the  senses, 
she  will  make  ever  new  discoveries  of  beauty  from  the 
reflected  hues  of  her  own  fancy,  and  will  give  every  hili 
and  promontory  a  new  name,  and  derive  from  it  a  new 
joy,  from  its  resemblance  to  some  picture  which  the  inner 
eye  alone  has  seen.  Hyperides  once  pleaded  for  a  guilty 
woman ;  but  finding  that  his  eloquence  was  vain,  he  drew 
the  vail  from  the  beautiful  bosom  of  his  client,  and  won 
his  cause.  0  could  I  but  expose  the  beauties  of  your 
own  breasts,  I  need  not  add, 

3.  That  the  inner  world  is  a  sublime  one.  Great  extent 
is  sublime.  Hence,  in  part,  the  sublimity  of  the  sky, 
the  expanded  seas.  He  who  is  confined  within  the 
boundaries  of  sense  dwells  in  a  narrow  house;  he  who 
abides  within  occupies  a  large  space.  Deprived  of  all 
his  senses,  he  may  walk  abroad,  and,  even  on  his  couch 
of  straw,  enjoy  a  liberty  that  tyrants  might  envy,  and  a 
range  that  sensualists  can  never  know.  Is  depth  sub- 
lime? Who  has  stood  upon  the  verge  of  the  precipice, 
and  looked  from  cliff  to  cliff?  did  not  his  eyes  grow  dim 


THE    INNER    WORLD.  65 

and  his  brain  reel?  God  has  said,  "The  heart  is  deep." 
Plummet  line  may  fathom  ocean;  but  who  hath  sounded 
the  depths  of  human  passion,  or  human  reason,  or  human 
will  ?  In  thy  breast  is  the  whole  history  of  man,  past 
and  to  come,  in  epitome;  for  in  it  are  the  fountains 
whence  all  human  actions  flow.  Look  into  the  deep  well 
of  thy  heart,  and  thou  shalt  see  down  into  the  heart  of 
Adam.  From  the  depths  of  thy  reason  thou  canst  draw 
up  the  ladder  that  raised  Newton  to  the  skies.  Untu- 
tored slave  though  you  may  be,  within  thee  are  all  the 
elementary  principles  of  that  philosopher's  immortal  dem- 
onstrations. Although  thou  canst  not  take  the  dimen- 
sions of  the  rice-field  that  limits  thy  labors,  thou  hast 
within  thy  mind  the  mathematics  that  can  measure  and 
weigh  the  most  distant  planet  in  space.  Is  swiftness 
sublime?  Ask  the  lightning.  But  thought  mocks  its 
lazy  foot.  It  touches  all  things  with  a  celerity  that  is 
nearly  equivalent  to  ubiquity;  for  it  oversteps  a  space 
that,  for  its  distance,  can  scarce  be  measured,  in  a  time 
that,  for  its  shortness,  can  scarce  be  noted.  Is  mystery 
sublime?  .How  mysterious  are  the  faculties  of  the  mind! 
Imagination  is  the  image  of  omnipresence.  It  soars 
backward,  or  upward,  or  downward,  as  on  wings  of  light; 
or  rushing  onward,  with  the  mien  and  the  majesty  of  an 
angel,  it  may  cross  the  boundaries  of  creation,  and  hav- 
ing perched  on  the  limits  of  possibility,  may  spread  its  tri- 
umphant wing,  and  proudly  perform  its  gyrations  on  the 
clouds  beyond.  Memory  is  the  image  of  omniscience 
It  unrolls  a  canvas  on  which  earth  and  skies  are  out- 
spread; so  that  though  the  eye  may  be  closed,  the  soul,* 
within  its  little  tenement,  can  examine  all  the  hues  and 
forms  of  sensible  things  in  its  impressions  of  the  past. 
It  sends  its  telegraphic  wires  back  to  the  green  of  our 
earliest  gambols,  and,  pushing  its  magnetic  lines  through 

the  tomb,  it  brings  us  messages  from  eternity — the  thou- 

5 


66  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

sand  joys,  and  kindnesses,  and  loves  of  the  lost  and 
redeemed  ones.  Reason  is  the  image  of  divine  wisdom. 
It  gives  us  a  knowledge  of  relations — in  proportion  to 
which  our  views  expand.  With  nothing  but  perception, 
conception,  and  consciousness,  we  are  fettered  in  mind 
as  one  bound  to  a  stake  would  be  in  body.  By  tracing 
relations,  we  break  our  chains,  and  extend  our  walks 
farther  and  farther  through  the  universe.  Reason  often, 
like  the  architect,  looks  along  the  chain  of  causes  and 
effects,  and  sees  results  of  which  the  agents  that  are  to 
produce  them  have  no  conception.  How  little  progress 
would  men  make  without  its  speculations!  Say  that 
speculation  is  a  shadow;  yet  by  a  shadow  Thales  learned 
to  measure  a  pyramid.  Say,  with  Aristophanes,  that  phi- 
losophy is  in  the  clouds;  if  some  one  had  not  been  there, 
who  would  have  calculated  eclipses?  Say,  if  you  will, 
that  the  lines  of  scientific  light  are  intangible  and  im- 
aginary; so  are  the  solstices  and  ecliptic;  but  the  sun 
observes  them,  and  the  heavens  are  taught  by  them,  and 
the  year  is  divided  by  them,  and  commerce,  and  history, 
and  law,  and  love  fall  into  order  by  their  guidance.  Say, 
if  you  will,  that  the  speculative  reason  wheels  in  air; 
and  what  shall  we  say  of  the  earth  which  spins  on  noth- 
ing, yet  bears  you  safely?  You  rejoice  in  maps,  and  dial- 
plates,  and  steam-engines,  and  railways,  and  telegraphs; 
but  all,  all,  were  first  drafted  in  the  reasoning  soul,  as 
the  universe  was  drafted  in  the  mind  of  God  before  it 
uprose  from  chaos.  Even  when  the  labors  of  enlightened 
reason  do  not  result  in  any  material  benefit,  still  they  are 
always  improving,  always  desirable,  always  grand.  How 
superhuman  appears  Pythagoras  pointing  out  that  system 
of  the  universe  which  it  required  twenty  centuries  of 
subsequent  observation  and  study  to  demonstrate !  How 
.grand  Seneca,  when  in  remote  antiquity  he  predicts  the 
diflcovery  of  a  new  world  upon  our  planet!  How  angelic 


THE    INNER    WORLD.  67 

Roger  Bacon,  projecting  his  mind  so  far  forward  of  hia 
age  that  his  cotemporaries  deemed  him  an  infernal  being, 
and  subsequent  times,  whose  discoveries  he  had  anticipa- 
ted, looked  back  upon  him  as  a  supernal  one! 

How  grand  a  movement  of  mind  is  generalization ' 
What  a  wonderful  pregnancy  does  it-  give  to  words! 
Each  general  term  is  a  swarming  city  of  thoughts — a 
word  may  describe  a  weight  which  the  planet  Jupiter 
could  not  carry  on  his  bosom,  and  a  few  figures,  that  we 
play  with  as  a  child  with  its  toys,  may  be  made  to  lift  the 
screen  from  the  immensities  of  Jehovah's  works. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  will?  which  says  to  the 
wilderness,  bloom,  and  it  is  as  the  garden  of  Eden; 
which  says  to  the  mountain,  be  open,  and  the  bowels  of 
the  rock  are  blasted  out;  which  makes  a  path  through 
the  sea,  and  a  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire,  on  an  iron  path- 
way, through  the  desert;  which  tameth  the  tiger,  and 
maketh  a  plaything  of  the  lion;  which  grasps  the  im- 
pending thunderbolt,  and  hides  its  powerless  flash  in  the 
bosom  of  the  earth?  And  0  what  awful  power  does  the 
will  sometimes  exert  within  the  dominions  of  the  soul! 
See  that  martyr  laid  upon  the  rack !  Every  limb  in 
stretched,  and  every  nerve  thrills  with  agony.  A  single 
word,  and  the  prisoner  will  be  relieved  and  restored  to 
his  friends.  How  shall  he  avoid  uttering  it?  Will  not 
his  intellect  rebel?  Will  not  his  heart  cry  out?  Will 
not  his  tongue,  for  an  instant,  break  loose?  Wait  and  see. 
Hark!  the  heavy  instrument  falls,  and  a  bone  is  broken, 
and  the  sharp  fragments  pierce  through  the  quivering 
flesh.  An  interval  follows — a  dreadful  interval — and,  in 
the  midst  of  the  agony,  the  executioner  demands  the 
word  of  recantation;  but  that  tongue,  which  utters  forth 
groans  that  make  a  city  shudder,  lisps  not  a  syllable. 
Slowly  the  instrument  descends  again,  and  another  bono 
IH  broken,  and  another,  till  every  linib  is  in  fragments 


68  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

and  the  whole  body  lies  lacerated  and  bleeding;  and  now 
the  executioner  approaches,  and  the  dews  of  death  are 
upon  the  martyr's  brow,  and  though  the  tongue  speaks 
sweetly  and  freely  of  Jesus,  and  of  the  land  where  the 
weary  rest,  it  is  mute  as  the  grave  as  to  recantation. 
Zeno,  on  the  rack",  lest  his  tongue  should  betray  him,  bit 
it  off,  and  spit  it  out  in  the  face  of  his  judge.  The 
human  will  is,  perhaps,  the  most  sublime  of  all  things. 
That  Power  which  wields  the  lightning  and  moves  the 
storm,  which  scatters  worlds  through  space  as  the  hus- 
bandman casts  seed  into  the  furrow,  which  by  a  look 
of  terror  could  blast  the  universe,  suffers  the  will  of  man 
to  rise  up  against  itself.  How  terrible  looks  the  fabled 
Atreus,  glutted  with  his  banquet  of  revenge,  when  the 
justice  of  the  gods  comes  down  upon  the  feast!  Bolt 
after  bolt  falls  on  every  side,  yet  the  untamed  will  of  the 
rebel,  as  if  in  triumph,  looks  up  from  the  sea  of  fire,  and 
cries,  " Thunder,  ye  powerless  gods;  I  am  avenged." 
And  such  a  scene — yea,  and  more  dreadful — do  we  see 
every  day  enacted  in  the  sinner's  breast,  where  the  will 
sits,  amid  the  ruins  of  the  soul,  an  outcast  from  God, 
and,  though  on  earth,  like  Satan  in  the  pit,  saying,  in  its 
desolation,  as  it  approaches  the  tomb, 

"  Hail,  horrors !  hail, 

Infernal  world!  and  thou,  profoundest  hell, 
Receive  thy  new  possessor." 

There  is  a  power  behind  the  will  as  awful  as  the  will 
itself — the  heart.  This  is  the  image  of  creative  energy. 
To  a  great  extent  it  shapes  the  character,  molds  the 
words,  and  directs  the  actions  of  men.  Give  me  a  per- 
fect knowledge  of  a  man's  heart,  and  I  can  give  you  his 
character  and  course  in  general  results.  The  judgment, 
I  know,  is  the  informer  of  the  heart,  and  the  memory, 
and  the  fancy,  and  the  will,  and  the  conscience,  and  the 
providence  of  God,  are  its  checks  and  modifiers;  but 


THE    INNER    WORLD.  69 

upon  all  of  these,  except  the  last,  it  has  a  reflex  and  most 
potent  influence:  sometimes  blinding  the  judgment,  giv- 
ing tone  to  the  fancy,  forcing  the  will,  and  perverting 
the  conscience.  Hence,  it  is  that  part  of  our  nature 
upon  which  chiefly  the  fires  of  depravity  burn,  and  upon 
which,  too,  the  dews  of  grace  distill. 

We  are  accustomed  to  give  too  much  credit  to  intellect 
in  the  works  of  creative  genius.  Poetry,  eloquence,  etc., 
are  the  spontaneous  results  of  influences  little  heeded 
and  little  understood.  Genius,  in  its  happiest  moods, 
when  throwing  the  hues  of  sensible  things  over  the 
regions  of  the  spirit,  or  the  coloring  of  the  soul  over  the 
scenery  of  the  earth,  is  but  sweetly  yielding  to  the  laws 
that  shape  the  thoughts  of  the  infant  on  his  hobby. 
While  the  poet  may  think  that  he  is  steering  his  heart, 
his  heart  may  be  directing  him,  telling  him  where  to  stop 
in  his  spiritual  journey,  compelling  him  to  survey  the 
scenery  around  him,  and  even  pointing  him  to  the  very 
colors  in  which  he  should  dip  his  brush.  The  philoso- 
pher who  is  indignant  at  the  prejudices  of  others  may 
have  his  own  intellect  tinged  with  unperceived  preju- 
dices, expressed  in  the  very  words  in  which  he  declaims 
against  the  errors  that  he  exposes.  The  revolt  of  the 
common  mind  at  what  seems  artificial,  and  the  great  law 
of  criticism  which  condemns  every  thing  that  does  not 
seem  natural,  shows  how  little  of  the  achievements  of  a 
genius  are  due  to  his  volition.  To  give  the  mind  such  a 
tone  that  its  spontaneous  suggestions  shall  be  worthy  to 
be  uttered — this  is  the  labor  of  the  heart. 

The  heart  is  the  index  to  the  faculty  of  association. 
Every  hill,  and  river,  and  blossom  which  presents  itself 
to  us  opens  a  department  of  thought,  and  lets  loose  a 
crowd  of  images,  grand  or  mean,  useful  or  pernicious, 
according  to  our  previous  trains  of  thought;  and  these 
trains  of  thought  depend  chiefly  upon  the  heart.  To 


70  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

the  holy,  for  example,  every  scene  brings  the  animating 
revelations  of  Scripture,  and  awakens  the  transporting 
hopes  and  exalting  charities  of  the  child  of  God;  his 
mind  always  moves  on  consecrated  ground,  and  his  march 
is  in  a  triumphal  procession  of  sanctified  saints  to  glory 
and  to  God;  he  communes  with  the  white-robed  and 
pure,  and  lives  rather  in  the  tranquil  past  or  the  jubilant 
future  than  in  the  dull  and  sinful  present.  For  him 
roses  are  roses  of  Sharon,  and  lilies  are  fragrant  with 
incense.  For  him  Christ  stands  and  teaches  amid  his 
apostolic  band,  or  even  in  the  desert;  and  angels  leave 
their  heavenly  bowers  to  gather  round  his  new-born  soul 
in  the  hour  of  sorrow  and  of  trial. 

And  who  does  not  know  the  influence  of  the  heart  on 
the  judgment?  Why  do  poets  sing  better  and  oftencr 
of  a  lost  than  a  recovered  Paradise?  Why  is  it  that 
genius  planted  in  the  soil  of  righteousness  and  the  air 
of  worship  produces  only  a  few  fading  leaves,  while  in 
the  ashes  of  sin  and  the  atmosphere  of  moral  death  it 
breaks  out  into  gorgeous  luxuriance?  Why  is  it  that  the 
Hebrew  melodies  are  sought  after  by  the  few,  while  the 
Don  Juan  is  craved  by  millions?  Why  is  it  that  the 
works  of  wickedness  are  often  as  impressive  as  the  tem- 
pest, while  the  melting  beams  of  holiness  are  unheeded 
as  the  sun  ?  It  is  because  of  the  power  of  the  heart  to 
warp  the  judgment. 

The  heart  is  the  source  of  inventive  genius.  Will  can 
not  bring  up  a  single  thought;  the  heart  is  the  wizard 
that  evokes,  shapes,  and  directs  them  all.  I  know  it 
does  not  make  thought  any  more  than  the  mountains 
make  the  springs  that  gush  from  their  grassy  sides;  but, 
like  the  volcano,  it  heaves  up  mountains  within  the  mind, 
and  makes  a  channel  which  gathers  up  and  whirls  the 
spiritual  waters  as  they  fall,  and  rolls  them  in  deeper  and 
deeper  currents  to  the  sea.  It  does  more:  it  disturbs 


THE    INNER    WORLD.  71 

the  electricity  of  the  mental  clouds,  and  opens  the  sluices 
of  the  inner  skies.  Let  the  heart  be  excited,  and  the 
mind  needs  no  schoolmaster  in  order  to  express  itself. 
What  one  man  feels  he  can  make  another  feel.  I  would 
not  despise  criticism  or  rhetoric,  but  we  had  Homer  and 
Pericles  before  either.  Love  can  pour  music  from  its 
throat  without  a  gamut;  can  ascend  the  sky,  like  the 
prophet,  in  its  own  chariot  of  fire;  can  thunder  and 
lighten  like  unto  him  that  walketh  upon  the  wings  of 
the  wind.  Don't  undertake  to  instruct  it.  The  eagle  in 
his  eyrie  needs  no  anatomy  in  order  to  fold  his  win_s 
around  his  triumphant  heart,  no  physiology  to  direct  his 
course  to  the  morning  sun.  The  excited  soul  thinks  of 
no  rules,  and  requires  none;  it  seizes  its  figures  and 
arguments  without  a  consciousness  of  its  movements,  and 
hurls  them  with  an  energy  that  is  like  to  supernatural. 
Sometimes  it  seizes  and  drops,  builds  up  and  destroys, 
engages  and  terrifies,  with  a  confusion  that  abides  no 
criticism,  and  heeds  none;  for  it  is  the  confusion  of  in- 
spiration— an  inspiration  to  which,  however  wild,  com- 
mon sense  and  philosophy  alike  respond  in  the  hour  of 
its  triumphant  action.  Would  you  see  one  of  the  grand- 
est images  of  God?  See  the  heart  of  Milton  brooding 
over  the  chaos  of  his  mind,  and  shaping  and  animating  a 
universe  beneath  its  wings,  and  filling  the  hights,  the 
depths,  the  paradise,  with  upper,  nether,  or  surrounding 
fires.  Would  you  bring  out  J \illy  the  power  of  the  mind, 
you  must  light  up  a  consuming  fire  in  the  breast. 

Now,  in  order  that  I  be  not  thought  transcendental, 
consider  that  although  thought  flows  on  according  to  the 
general  laws  of  association — contrast,  resemblance,  conti- 
guity, and  cause  and  effect — these  arc  modified  by  coex- 
istent emotion,  fre<jucncy  of  renewal,  peculiarities  of 
mental  constitution,  etc.,  and  that  these  chiefly  depend 
ipou  the  heart;  finally,  that  the  stimulus  imparted  to 


72  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

the  mind  by  intense  emotion  both  determines  its  affini- 
ties and  gives  the  tendency  to  suggestion  by  analogy,  in 
which  principally  consists  the  charm  of  genius. 

4.  The  inner  world  is  sublime,  because  of  its  influ- 
ences. These  extend  indefinitely,  but  immensely,  both 
through  space  and  time :  each  moral  world  is  related  with 
many  others.  You  see  that  star  high  up  in  the  skies; 
should  it  leave  its  orbit,  this  earth  would  be  shaken — all 
worlds  would  feel  its  erratic  movements.  Look  at  your 
soul.  Its  movements  may  be  felt  in  hell,  in  heaven, 
raising  a  new  wail  in  one  or  a  new  song  in  the  other. 
The  wandering  of  a  planet  affects  only  matter;  the  wan- 
dering of  a  soul  affects  rational  and  immortal  mind.  So 
in  time  the  soul  is  felt  afar  off;  it  may  pass  from  earth, 
yet  still  live  beneath  the  sun  :  the  oak  dies,  but  the  acorn 
lives.  Truth  springs  from  truth  as  seed  from  seed; 
though  with  this  difference,  that  the  crop,  while  of  the 
same  nature  as  the  seed,  and  much  more  abundant,  is  not 
always  its  exact  copy.  The  acorn  will  produce  an  oak  to 
the  end  of  time;  but  the  Illiad  may  produce  an  jiEneid 
in  this  age  and  a  Paradise  Lost  in  that;  while  it  is  bring- 
ing forth  an  epic  in  one  mind,  it  may  be  producing  an 
ode  in  another,  a  tragedy  in  a  third,  and  a  philosophical 
oration  in  a  fourth.  The  history  of  Thucydides  pro- 
duced the  orations  of  Demosthenes,  and  the  novels  of 
Sir  Walter  Scott  the  historical  works  of  Guizot  and 
Theirs. 

Action  is  no  less  prolific  than  words.  He  who  has  no 
children  may,  nevertheless,  have  a  numerous  and  illustri- 
ous progeny.  His  character,  like  Newton's,  or  Wesley's, 
or  Washington's,  may  be  a  fruitful  parent.  Marathon 
was  the  mother  of  Thermopylae,  Thermopylae  of  Salamis, 
Salamis  of  Plataea;  the  battle-fields  of  Greece  begat 
those  of  Rome,  as  Cannse  and  Philippi  did  those  of  Gaul 
and  Britain;  Bunker  Hill  and  Yorktown  have  descended 


THE    INNER    WORLD.  73 

lineally  from  the  first  mountains  and  fields  of  martial 
glory.  The  tomb  of  Leonidas,  as  long  as  an  oration  was 
annually  delivered  from  its  side,  produced  a  yearly  crop 
of  heroes.  The  dead  body  of  Lucretia,  planted  by  the 
hand  of  Brutus,  brought  forth  the  living  liberators  of 
Rome;  and  the  wounds  of  Caesar's  corpse,  touching  Ple- 
beian sympathy,  as  Anthony  lifted  up  his  shroud,  were 
the  seeds  whence  sprung  the  tyrants  of  ten  centuries. 
The  blood  of  the  martyrs  was  the  seed  of  the  Church. 
Hail,  Archimedes !  though  the  sphere  and  the  cylinder 
have  moldered  long  since  from  thy  tomb,  I  see  thee  to- 
day. Hail,  Demosthenes !  though  thy  voice  has  long 
since  died  away  over  thy  native  shores,  it  heaves  many  a 
living  breast  about  me.  Hail  from  thy  grave!  Hail, 
Paul!  though  Nero  long  ago  claimed  thy  head,  thy  heart 
Deats  sacred  music  in  a  thousand  pulpits  to-day. 

5.  The  inner  world  is  eternal.  Those  seas  must  dry 
up  and  these  mountains  dissolve,  the  sun  itself  shall 
burn  out,  and  the  lamps  of  this  temple  of  night  may 
drop  from  their  sockets,  like  autumn's  withered  leaves, 
but  the  soul  of  that  good  man  shall  never  die.  It  is  the 
holy  of  holies  which  God's  chosen  ministers  watch  over, 
and  which  mortal  eye  may  not  see;  and  it  shall  be  re- 
moved with  reverential  care,  when  the  clothes  of  this 
tabernacle  of  the  body  are  folded  up,  and  its  boards  are 
taken  down  in  the  grave.  The  faculties  of  his  soul  are 
holy  things,  which  go  not  into  darkness,  but  shall  have 
an  entrance  ministered  to  them  by  angels  of  ight  into 
the  temple  not  made  with  hands,  where  they  may  abide 
with  God  forever. 

Such  a  world,  young  man,  is  thy  soul;  and  wilt  thou 
be  dependent  on  external  things  for  thy  happiness,  so 
that  thou  art  sad  or  cheerful  according  as  the  wind  blows 
hither  or  thither?  Rather  be  like  him  whose  soul  is  his 
country — his  own  dear  native  land — and  to  whom  neither 


74  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

cloudless  skies,  nor  perennial  spring,  nor  double  harvests 
can  yield  so  much  delight. 

When  we  drink  the  bitter  waters  of  life,  or  loathe  the 
surfeit  and  the  pestilence  of  its  pleasures,  or  burn  with 
the  sting  of  its  fiery  serpents,  let  us  go  home.  0  glori- 
ous truth  !  that  the  mind,  shut  out  from  this  scene  of 
sensible  things,  can  retire  into  its  own  infinite  domain, 
and,  as  it  moves  along,  arrange  all  things  into  order  and 
symmetry  by  an  untaught  yet  unerring  astronomy! 
Thrice  happy  he  who  finds  that  spiritual  immensity  a 
sanctuary,  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  lighted 
up  with  the  lamps  of  angels,  radiant  with  the  presence 
of  God,  and  perfumed  with  his  perpetual  blessing.  To 
such  a  one  even  the  dungeon  is  the  vestibule  of  heaven, 
and  the  scaffold  a  step  in  the  ascent  to  glory.  He  can 
say, 

"  Should  fate  command  me  to  the  farthest  verge 
Of  the  green  earth,  to  distant  barbarous  climes, 
Rivers  unknown  to  song,  where  first  the  sun 
Gilds  Indian  mountains,  or  his  setting  beams 
Flame  o'er  Atlantic  isles,  'tis  naught  to  me, 
Since  God  is  ever  present,  ever  felt, 
In  the  void  waste  or  in  the  city  full." 

How  grand  a  sight  is  the  launch  of  a  ship!  As  she 
moves  from  the  stocks  slowly  down  the  inclined  plane, 
with  a  few  shouting  sailors  upon  her  deck — as  she  booms 
for  the  first  time  into  the  bosom  of  the  waters,  and  rises 
and  proudly  rights  herself  upon  the  waves,  you  think  of 
the  fate  that  awaits  her,  the  rich  cargoes  she  is  to  bear, 
the  multitudes  of  living  men  that  she  is  to  hold  up  on 
her  planks  from  the  deep,  billowy  grave;  of  the  com- 
munion she  is  to  establish  between  distant  continents; 
of  the  messages  of  love  and  the  lessons  of  light  that  she 
is  to  bear  to  the  nations;  of  the  storms  she  may  encoun- 
ter, and  the  lightning  that  may  smite  her  masts  and  wrap 
her  sides  in  flame,  lighting  up  the  sea  as  if  in  mockcrj 


THE    INNER    WORLD.  <O 

<:f  the  night;  of  the  many  that  may  plunge  down  from 
her  burning  bowels  to  rise  no  more,  and  the  few  that  may 
float  over  the  spray  upon  some  half-burnt  plank,  and  you 
feel  a  swelling  at  the  heart.  But  what  were  this  scene 
compared  with  one  such  as  God  might  show  you,  if  he 
were  to  convey  you  beyond  the  milky  way,  and  point  you 
to  a  new  world  which,  perhaps,  he  is  at  this  moment 
lunching  into  space!  Could  you  see  the  wide  landscape 
of  mountain  and  lake,  and  light  breaking  forth,  an/l  cre- 
ation becoming  warm  and  living;  fields  turning  into  flow- 
ers, waters  floating  with  birds,  lands  bringing  forth  cattle, 
the  very  dust,  on  some  fragrant  eminence,  turning  into 
two  human  but  not  immortal  beings — their  nostrils  dila- 
ting and  their  bosoms  swelling  with  the  breath  of  God — 
the  surrounding  stars  crowded  with  excited  angels,  and 
the  new  seas  and  skies  becoming  vocal  with  the  song  of 
the  sons  of  the  morning — how  would  you  feel?  Suppose 
you  were  informed  that  the  conduct  of  that  new-made 
pair  was  to  determine  the  future  character  of  that  globe; 
whether,  as  its  valleys  fill  up  with  population,  it  shall 
roll  onward  in  deeper  and  deeper  darkness  or  into  higher 
and  higher  light;  whether  it  shall  float  in  cursing  and 
groans,  or  in  thanksgiving  and  the  voice  of  melody — 
how  would  you  watch  and  pray  over  them,  as  if  the  blood 
would  rush  from  your  eyes  and  the  soul  sob  out  of  your 
body!  But  the  lanch  of  a  single  immortal  soul  into  life 
is  a  grander  and  more  awful  sight  than  the  lanch  of  such 
a  world.  The  happiness  of  those  millions  of  successive 
generations  would  cease  in  the  grave;  their  misery,  how- 
ever intense,  would  terminate  in  death.  Take  the  most 
joyous  conceivable  life  of  one  of  its  inhabitants,  or  the 
most  intense  agony  of  another,  and  multiply  it  by  mill- 
ions of  millions,  and  you  have  still  but  a  limited  joy  or 
sorrow;  but  that  immortal  soul  carries  wrapt  up  in  itself 
a  happiness  or  woe  that  shall  know  no  limit.  As  it  saila 


76  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAYS. 

out  in  life,  it  is  to  determine  whether  it  shall  float  in  tte 
blackness  of  darkness  forever,  or  circle  in  eternal  light 
around  the  throne  of  God. 


MISCELLANEOUS    READING.  77 


rTlHAT  we  may  keep  within  proper  limits,  let  us  confine 
-*-  ourselves  to  two  inquiries :  How  shall  we  read  ?  and 
why?  And,  first,  how?  My  answer  is,  with  scrutiny, 
reflection,  and  appropriation. 

I  say  with  scrutiny.  And  this  remark  is  not  unneces- 
sary, for  often  a  book  is  used  to  dissipate  weariness,  fill  up 
a  vacant  hour,  or  direct  our  attention  from  subjects  which 
might  lead  us  to  laborious  thought.  That  there  are  oc 
casions  when  books  may  properly  be  used  in  this  way  I 
do  not  deny ;  but  books  suitable  for  such  purposes  hardly 
deserve  that  name :  let  them  be  ranked  with  toys — well 
enough  for  the  child,  the  valetudinarian,  the  way-worn, 
and  the  poor,  bewildered  one  who  wanders  on  the  brink 
of  derangement.  I  speak  now  of  serious  reading,  which 
ought  always  to  be  an  exercise  of  thought.  If  you  find 
your  mind  unengaged,  lay  your  book  down,  lest  you  form 
a  habit  of  mental  supineuess.  If  it  is  of  great  import- 
ance, take  it  up  again,  but  not  till  you  have  called  your 
soul  to  account  for  its  listlessness.  Many  often  read  even 
the  Bible  merely  to  satisfy  a  tender  conscience,  or  con- 
form to  a  commendable  habit,  till  at  length  it  produces 
no  more  impression  upon  them  than  blank  paper.  If 
they  were  to  pause,  search,  study,  pray,  over  each  verse, 
or  if  they  were  to  read  it  in  the  original  language,  espe- 
cially if  they  were  under  the  necessity  of  tracing  words 
to  their  roots,  of  declining  njuns  and  conjugating  verbs, 
it  would  be  a  new  revelation  to  them. 


78  EDUCATIONAL    ESSAVS. 

To  read  witli  scrutiny  implies  attention — an  active, 
fived,  penetrating  state  of  mind,  which  should  be  di- 
rected to  the  words,  the  thoughts,  the  object,  and  the 
spirit  of  the  author.  We  can  not  apprehend  ideas  with- 
out understanding  words,  for  it  is  only  by  words  that  we 
can  either  think  or  receive  thought,  or  convey  it.  Many 
who  read  words  which  they  can  not  define,  suppose  they 
understand  them,  more  especially  if  such  words  are 
familiar  to  them.  They  may,  indeed,  by  a  sort  of  in- 
stinct, and  they  may  not.  If  they  do,  it  is  only  by  sup- 
plying conjecturally  the  words  not  defined.  In  matters 
of  importance  it  behooves  us  to  be  sure  that  we  are  right. 
Most  words  have  synonyms;  but  if  they  have  been  cor- 
rectly used,  they  can  not  well  be  exchanged  for  others. 
Let  us  see  that  we  give  to  each  word  not  merely  the 
right  meaning,  but  the  right  shade  of  meaning.  And 
here  you  will  mark  one  of  the  great  advantages  of  clas- 
sical study;  it  directs  attention  closely  to  words;  it  qual- 
ifies us  to  trace  their  relations;  it  habituates  us  to  scan 
their  uses.  You  will  not  infer  that  we  are  to  define  all 
our  words,  but  that  we  are  to  be  capable  of  defining 
them.  We  must  attend  to  construction,  no  less  than 
words.  The  same  words  may  be  arranged  so  as  to  con- 
vey truth,  or  falsehood,  or  nothing  at  all,  of  which  we 
have  many  examples  in  the  responses  of  heathen  oracles. 
How  often  do  we  read  on  carelessly!  If  we  understand, 
very  well ;  if  not,  just  as  well;  if  we  get  a  meaning  that 
satisfies  us,  what  matter  whether  it  is  our  own  or  the 
author's !  How  differently  do  lawyers  read  deeds  and 
wills,  replications  and  declarations,  statutes  and  decis- 
ions; the  dotting  of  an  i  or  the  tense  of  a  verb  may 
inake  all  the  difference  between  defeat  and  victory. 
They  relate  in  classic  story  that  a  client  returned  to  his 
lawyer  a  speech  that  he  had  written  for  him  to  read  to 
the  jury,  saying  that  when  he  first  read  it  he  thought  it 


MISCELLANEOUS     READING  79 

perfect;  when  he  read  it  the  second  time  he  oegan  tc 
doubt;  and  when  he  read  it  the  third  time  he  thought  it 
miserably  pour.  "You  fool,"  said  the  lawyer,  "are  you 
going  to  read  it  to  the  jury  three  times?"  Most  authors 
write  for  the  world's  first  reading,  and  the  world  rarely 
gives  them  a  second.  In  general,  books  are  read  superfi- 
cially; if  addressed  to  the  imagination  and  the  passions, 
because  it  is  useless  to  fathom  them;  if  addressed  to  the 
reason,  because  it  is  difficult  to  do  so;  if  of  irreligious 
character,  because  they  fall  in  with  the  current  of  human 
thought  and  feeling;  and  if  of  opposite  tendency,  be- 
cause they  are  unwelcome  to  the  heart.  How  many  sub- 
lime passages  in  the  prophets,  the  Psalms,  the  evangel- 
ists, are  of  no  meaning,  because  we  do  not  make  our- 
selves acquainted  with  their  force  !  Let  us  give  every 
book  a  third  reading,  or,  at  least,  its  equivalent,  before  a 
final  passage.  Hence,  it  would  be  well  for  us  to  have 
always  upon  the  table  an  English  dictionary,  and  a  Bio- 
graphical, a  Geographical,  and  a  Scientific  one,  that  we 
may  understand  the  allusions  and  feel  the  full  power  of 
the  author.  A  good  book  read  with  constant  references, 
whenever  necessary,  to  maps,  history,  and  authority,  is 
worth  a  cartload  read  superficially;  it  exercises  our 
highest  faculties,  extends  the  circle  of  our  information, 
and  revives,  deepens,  and  applies  knowledge  previously 
acquired.  From  the  ideas  of  the  author  we  must  ascend 
to  his  design.  Many  have  read  Homer's  Iliad,  for  ex- 
ample, without  ever  comprehending  its  purpose;  yet  it  is 
not  till  we  see  the  lesson  it  is  designed  to  impress — the 
importance  of  fraternal  union — that  we  can  fully  appre- 
ciate the  great  poet's  power.  How  can  we  judge  of  a 
book  without  considering  the  intention  with  which  each 
illustration,  argument,  deduction,  and  figure  is  intro- 
duced, and  the  relation  it  bears  to  the  writer's  ultimate 
purpose?  A  thing  absolutely  strong  may  be  relatively 


80  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS.' 

weak,  a  thing  absolutely  impotent  may  be  relatively 
mighty;  a  strong  chain  may  be  rendered  useless  by  one 
missing  link;  a  feeble  beam  may  become  powerful,  if  it 
leap  out  of  the  timber  in  answer  to  the  stone  that  cries 
out  of  the  wall.  Nor  should  we  fail  to  consider  the 
spirit  of  the  author — the  habitual  nature  of  his  feelings, 
and  their  particular  state  when  he  penned  his  produc- 
tion. Thus  the  spirit  of  Shakspeare  is  genial ;  of 
Young,  gloomy;  of  Milton,  grave;  of  Byron,  bitter  and 
malignant.  Yet  no  one  of  them  has  written  all  his  works 
in  the  same  mood.  Compare,  for  example,  the  Don  Juan 
and  the  Hebrew  Melodies.  Without  appreciating  the 
spirit  of  an  author,  we  can  neither  understand  the 
meaning,  nor  measure  the  intensity,  nor  fix  the  compre- 
hension, which  we  should  ascribe  to  his  expressions. 
The  same  words  are  of  far  different  meaning  and  force  in 
the  mouth  of  anger  and  the  mouth  of  love;  the  same 
phrase  in  Solomon's  Song,  and  in  Moore's  Melodies  might 
inspire  feelings  as  different  as  would  an  angel  in  light 
and  a  woman  in  scarlet.  There  is  one  book  which,  in 
consequence  of  its  antiquity,  its  pre-eminent  importance, 
and  its  inspiration,  should  be  read  with  special  aids;  that 
is,  commentaries.  I  refer  now  to  such  as  are  critical; 
of  which  Adam  Clarke's  is  a  fine  example,  though,  like 
the  sun,  it  has  spots.  There  are  separate  commentaries 
on  particular  portions  of  Scripture  which  will  generally 
be  found  better  than  any  universal  one.  I  wish  we  bad 
writers  who  had  done  for  other  books  of  the  Bible  what 
Lowth  has  for  Isaiah  and  Home  for  the  Psalms.  The 
diffuse  commentaries,  abounding  in  reflections  which  had 
better  come  from  your  own  mind,  you  will  generally  find 
watery;  you  may  obtain  ideas  from  them  after  long  wait- 
ing, but  they  will  not  be  your  own,  and  they  will  be 
received  in  a  distended  and  weakened  mind.  Educated 
men  often  read  the  Bible  better  without  commentaries. 


MISCELLANEOUS     READING  81 

Let  them  have  a  good  Bible  dictionary  and  a  work  on 
Archaeology;  an  acquaintance  with  the  original  tongues, 
and  with  ancient  history  and  geography,  and  they  need 
not  fail  to  find  the  meaning  of  holy  oracles.  Moreover, 
they  will  study  with  a  mind  more  awakened,  more  inde- 
pendent, more  cautious,  more  critical,  and  more  reveren- 
tial, too,  as  the  principal  and  the  auxiliary,  the  divine 
and  the  human,  will  not  be  so  intimately  blended.  Were 
commentaries  all  destroyed,  the  Bible  would  become  a 
California,  where  every  man,  assured  there  was  gold, 
would  wash  his  own  sand. 

To  scrutiny  should  succeed  reflection.  We  should  not 
only  examine  superfices,  but  penetrate,  revolve,  evolve,  sep- 
arate, compare,  combine,  till  "out  of  the  eater  comes  forth 
meat,  and  out  of  the  strong  comes  forth  sweetness."  We 
should  seek  not  merely  for  the  melody  of  the  cadences 
and  the  beauty  of  the  images,  but  the  validity  of  the 
judgments,  the  weight  of  the  matter,  the  value  of  the 
conclusions,  the  additional  illustrations  and  arguments  by 
which  the  statements  and  reasonings  might  be  corrobo- 
rated, the  relation  which  the  facts  bear  to  our  previous 
knowledge  and  the  various  uses  to  which  the  information 
imparted  may  be  applied;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  the  ex- 
ceptions which  have  been  omitted,  the  blunders  which 
have  been  committed,  the  inconsistencies  into  which  the 
author  has  fallen,  and  the  inapplicability  of  his  subject 
to  useful  purposes.  A  book  read  with  reflection  is  like 
the  imaginary  gold  concealed  in  the  vineyard  of  fable, 
which,  causing  the  possessors  to  dig  deep  all  over  their 
grounds,  formed  in  them  habits  of  eager  industry,  and 
gave  to  their  soil  an  unsuspected  productiveness.  Men 
too  often,  either  from  a  want  of  information  or  want  of 
independence,  from  an  overweening  confidence  in  tho 
author  or  an  incorrigible  indolence  in  themselves,  from 
%n  unpardonable  haste  or  an  unfortunate  weakness,  re 


EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

coive  all  that  they  read.  Such  minds  are  like  human 
life,  never  in  one  stay.  Their  philosophy  is  grass;  in 
the  morning  it  cometh  up  and  flourisheth;  in  the  even- 
ing it  is  cut  down  and  withereth.  If  you  would  know 
their  present  state  of  mind,  ask  what  book  they  have 
last  read.  "They  are  ever  learning,  but  never  able  to 
come  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth."  Their  minds  are  as 
blackboards  overspread  with  symbols,  which  by  cancella- 
tion yield  only  zero.  If  they  happen  to  be  pastors  or 
teachers,  woe  to  their  flocks  or  pupils,  for  they  are  to  be 
led  through  a  maze;  if  they  are  doctors,  woe  to  their  pa- 
tients, for  they  must  taste  a  little  of  every  thing.  Hap- 
pily such  persons  have  but  little  force. 

There  is  a  great  want  of  reflection  among  mankind; 
the  multitude  in  all  ages  has  sunk  into  the  grave  without 
thinking;  and  the  few  that  have  not,  with  here  and 
there  an  exception,  have  been  occupied  with  the 
thoughts  of  others  rather  than  their  own.  A  few  sov- 
ereign minds  divide  among  themselves  the  realm  of 
reason,  giving  opinions  as  decrees.  No  sway  more  per- 
fect than  theirs.  Talk  not  of  Russian  autocrats  in  pres- 
ence of  the  autocrats  of  philosophy,  who,  as  God's 
thinking  vicegerents,  prescribe  routes  and  limits  for  the 
outgoings  of  human  mind,  and  hunt  down  those  who 
transgress  them  as  wild  beasts  of  the  desert.  Hence, 
notwithstanding  unnumbered  millions  of  separate  im- 
mortal men  have  lived  upon  the  earth,  all  the  thoughts 
of  the  world  that  have  been  preserved  may  be  ranked 
under  a  few  heads:  thus,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Confucius, 
Mohammed,  Bacon,  Kant.  A  Caesar  or  Bonaparte  ceases 
to  rule  when  he  dies;  but  these  mental  despots  rule  ages 
after  they  disappear.  Aristotle,  for  example,  swayed 
Europe  for  more  than  a  thousand  years,  and  still  he 
sways.  Columbus  will  be  remembered  long  as  an  island 
or  mountain  of  this  continent  shall  stand  above  the 


MISCELLANEOUS    READING  83 

waves ;  but  Homer  will  be  known  long  as  a  syllable  of 
language  lives  upon  the  lips  of  man.  Columbus  rules 
not  the  lands  he  pointed  out;  Bacon  does.  It  would 
seem,  at  first  sight,  that  the  law  of  hereditary  succession 
does  not  prevail  among  the  princes  of  thought;  out, 
upon  examination,  we  see  that  young  ones  are  but  the 
children  of  the  old,  with  altered  names.  Scarce  a  new 
phase  in  philosophy  that  is  not  a  mere  revival  of  an  old 
one.  The  present  age  is  as  unreflective  as  its  prede- 
cessor; it  is  one  of  activity  and  haste,  in  which  its  very 
facilities  are  incumbrances;  the  multitude  of  its  books 
discourages  reflection.  Would  you  form  an  idea  of  a 
man's  politics,  ask  what  political  paper  he  takes;  would 
you  know  his  religion,  ask  what  preacher  he  hears.  But 
do  not  his  opinions  direct  the  choice  both  of  paper  and 
preacher?  So  you  might  suppose,  but  that  you  find 
him  veering  as  they  do,  just  as  they  veer  when  their 
masters  do.  What  revolutions  arc  wrought  in  the  masses 
by  the  movement  of  some  national  convention!  "Old 
things  pass  away,  all  things  become  new;"  parties  are 
bought  and  sold  with  their  leaders,  as  Russian  serfs  are 
bought  and  sold  with  the  land.  Men  will  not  think; 
they  have  their  thinking  done  for  them — done  by  ma- 
chinery. As  the  Carguero  carries  the  traveler  in  a  chair 
on  his  back  over  the  mountains  of  Quito,  so  the  teacher 
is  to  bear  the  student  on  his  blackboard  to  the  summits 
of  knowledge;  as  the  priest  in  Siberia  ties  his  devotions 
to  the  windmill,  and  expects  every  revolution  to  count  a 
valid  prayer,  so  we  expect  our  ministers  to  waft  our  souls 
to  the  mount  of  God;  as  the  steam-horse  puffs  us, 
whether  we  are  asleep  or  awake,  to  the  city,  so  we  expect 
the  book  to  bear  us  to  the  metropolis  of  reason.  Hence, 
human  mind,  with  increased  activity,  has  diminished  fer- 
tility; amid  advancement  in  arts,  and  sciences,  and 
wealth,  it  is  stationary  in  the  higher  grounds  of  intellect- 


84 


EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 


ual  laoor;  having  more  leisure,  more  facilities,  more 
knowledge,  more  incentives  than  it  has  ever  had,  it  is 
content  to  be  agitated  and  amused  with  the  successive 
explosions  of  the  magazine  of  folly  and  error,  and  makes 
no  majestic  march  in  the  direction  of  truth.  It  trembles 
to  ascend  on  the  stream  of  borrowed  thought  to  original 
fountains,  as  if,  like  the  rivers  of  Eden,  they  were 
guarded  by  sworded  cherubim;  it  fears  to  move  onward 
to  the  ocean,  as  if  beyond  the  frequented  coasts  of  truth 
nature  inverted  her  laws.  Reflect  as  you  read,  cautiously, 
but  freely,  boldly. 

We  should  not  only  read  with  reflection,  but  appropri- 
ation. The  mind  may  comprehend  its  knowledge,  and 
act  upon  it,  without  being  able  to  make  use  of  it;  hence, 
some,  though  very  learned,  are  far  from  wise.  Their 
minds  are  as  a  storehouse,  where  all  treasures  are  con- 
fusedly mixed;  they  are  walking  libraries,  and  can  give 
you  history,  philosophy,  poetry,  and  theology,  but  just  as 
they  received  it;  they  have  carefully  wrapped  their  tal- 
ent in  a  napkin,  and  buried  it,  to  be  disinterred  when 
called  for.  There  are  others,  who  analyze  propositions — 
who  consider  the  relations  of  facts  to  others  which  they 
have  previously  acquired,  and  thus  elicit  further  knowl- 
edge, uniting  the  different  colored  rays  of  the  mental 
prism  to  form  a  perfect  light — who  ponder  principles  till 
they  see  new  applications  of  them — who  examine  argu- 
ments till  they  perceive  new  truths  which  they  may  be 
made  to  disclose — who  find  in  one  sophism  the  clew  to 
another.  They  profitably  invest  their  talents,  and  give 
forth  knowledge  not  as  they  received  it,  but,  though  like 
itself,  yet  not  itself,  more  than  itself;  the  spiritual  corn, 
sinking  into  their  mental  soil,  dies,  and  is  quickened, 
and  sends  forth  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the 
ripe  corn  in  the  ear.  Between  the  knowledge  of  these 
two  there  is  the  difference  of  life  and  death.  It  in 


MISCELLANEOUS     BEADING  85 

amazing  what  power  of  appropriation  a  man  may  acquire. 
Kossuth  may  make  a  speech  every  day  from  the  conver- 
sations of  men,  who  little  suspect  that  the  knowledge 
they  receive  from  him  is  but  that  which  they  have  given, 
though  bearing  the  impress  of  his  mind;  he  received  it 
as  ore,  he  returns  it  as  currency.  See  that  your  soul  is 
not  a  great  cistern,  but  a  great  furnace,  in  which  every 
thing  cast  must  be  saved  as  by  fire. 

Not  every  book  is  to  be  read  with  the  same  degree  of 
attention.  Erasmus  cries,  "I  have  spent  twelve  years  in 
the  study  of  Cicero."  Lord  Verulam  responds,  "0  ass!" 
Generally  that  book  which  has  been  written  hastily 
should  be  read  hastily.  Some  volumes  have  cost  twenty 
years'  toil ;  these  should  be  read  slowly,  or  not  at  all. 
Although  we  may  tithe  mint,  anise,  and  cummin,  we 
should  not  be  as  long  collecting  the  revenue  of  a  poor 
district  as  of  a  rich  one.  "  Some  books,"  says  Lord 
Bacon,  "  are  to  be  tasted,  others  to  be  swallowed,  and 
some  few  to  be  chewed  and  digested."  Of  the  last  class 
I  speak. 

The  habit  of  attentive,  reflective,  appropriative  read- 
ing may  not  be  easily  acquired,  nor  is  any  other  good 
habit;  but  we  may  say  of  it  what  Aristotle  says  of  learn- 
ing, "  The  roofs  are  bitter,  but  the  fruits  are  sweet." 
When  once  it  is  acquired,  it  may  readily  be  strength- 
ened, and  will  afford  through  life  a  never-failing  feast 
and  an  unceasing  mental  growth.  Youth  is  the  time  to 
acquire  it,  and  the  best  mode  is  to  use  the  pen ;  not  to 
transcribe  important  chapters  or  beautiful  passages  to  be 
used  as  aids  in  argumentation  or  gems  in  composition — a 
practice  which  enervates  memory  and  degrades  style; 
nor  to  construct  commonplaces — an  exercise  much  more 
useful;  but  to  form  discourse  of  your  own;  this  will 
prove  a  magnet  to  gather  fragments  as  you  advance,  and 
at  once  guide  and  stimulate  your  further  excavations. 


86  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

But  reaa  with  an  eye  to  human  life.  We  should  not  live 
to  read,  but  read  to  live.  Action  is  the  highest  mode  of 
being —  • 

"  In  the  deed  —the  unequivocal,  authentic  deed — 
We  find  sound  argument." 

The  purpose  of  training  a  child  is  not  so  much  that  he 
may  read,  or  write,  or  speak,  but  go.  Mere  study  is  a 
weariness  to  the  flesh ;  and  however  diligent  we  may  be, 
wo  can  not  grow  much  wiser  or  stronger  by  reading  ex- 
clusively. Books  need  the  illustration  of  nature  and 
life.  The  physician,  lawyer,  doctor,  warrior,  who  should 
spend  life  in  the  study,  would  not  be  fit  to  be  trusted. 
It  is  only  by  the  application  of  knowledge  that  we  lear"n 
its  limitations,  exceptions,  and  proper  force.  Hoarded 
knowledge,  like  the  hoarded  manna  of  the  desert,  pu- 
trefies; and  epicurism  in  mind,  as  in  body,  has  its  acida 
and  crudities,  its  flatulencies  and  constipations.  All  wis- 
dom and  wit  that  does  not  promote  man's  happiness  or 
God's  glory  is  vanity.  Hence,  while  men  have  ranked 
philosophers  and  orators  as  demigods,  they  have  ranked 
discoverers  and  inventors  as  gods;  and  properly,  since 
the  comet  that  occasionally  flashes  up  the  heavens  is  less 
godlike  than  the  dew  which,  from  day  to  day,  and  gener- 
ation to  generation,  invisibly  distills  upon  the  earth. 

Neither  a  nation  nor  an  individual  is  to  be  judged  by 
the  number  of  its  books.  Egypt  was  crumbling  when 
her  Alexandrian  Library  was  the  largest  in  the  world ; 
Asia  Minor  was  falling  under  the  blows  of  Greece  when 
her  books  were  ten  to  one  more  than  her  adversary's; 
Greece  had  multiplied  her  parchments  when  Rome's 
hardy  legions  subdued  the  Peloponnesus;  Rome  was 
filled  with  books  when  Alaric  sacked  the  imperial  city. 
On  the  contrary,  Greece  had  but  few  writings  when  she 
drove  back  Xerxes,  and  produced  Homeric  song;  Rome 
few  when  she  expelled  the  Tarquins,  and  brought  forth 


MISCELLANEOUS     READING  87 

Brutus;  Britain  few  when  she  drafted  the  Magna  Charts, 
.nd  sent  the  Black  Prince  to  Cressy;  and  what  is  more 
common  than  to  find  a  man  with  a  large  library  a  very 
great  fool ! 

Nevertheless,  books  have  their  uses;  and  we  come  to 
inquire, secondly, why  should  we  read?  The  lighter  usea 
of  reading — to  tranquilize  our  passions,  to  assuage  our 
sorrows,  to  moderate  our  anxieties,  to  beguile  our  jour- 
neys, to  give  interest  to  our  idle  hours,  to  refine  the  man- 
ners and  humanize  the  heart,  to  awaken  the  desire  for 
knowledge  and  form  the  taste  for  reading — we  pass  with 
a  single  caveat  against  a  class  of  books  which  is  usually 
employed  to  answer  these  indications :  I  mean  novels  and 
romances.  In  condemning  them  let  us  not  be  understood 
as  denouncing  all  fictitious  productions;  the  fables  of 
JEsop,  the  allegories  of  prophecy,  the  parables  of  Christ, 
the  tales  which  embellish  and  impress  historical  facts, 
and  the  illustrations  which  the  pulpit  employs  with  so 
much  grace  and  efficiency,  afford  at  once  authority  for 
fictions  and  rules  for  its  construction  and  use.  Novels 
and  romances  usually  offend  a  pure  taste  and  a  sound 
mind  by  their  gaudy  dress,  their  unnatural  characters, 
and  their  paucity  of  instruction;  and  always  tend  to 
weaken  the  power  of  attention,  to  impair  the  judgment, 
to  divorce  the  connection  between  action  and  sympathy, 
to  give  a  preponderance  to  the  imagination,  to  create  a 
distaste  for  simple  truth,  and  a  disinclination  both  for 
manly  studies  and  the  dull  realities  of  life.  Many  of 
them  are  liable  to  a  greater  objection,  as,  by  a  Plutonic 
chemistry,  they  turn  the  diamond  of  virtue  into  the  char- 
coal of  vice.  It  is  alleged  that  they  soften  the  heart  and 
excite  an  interest  in  suffering.  Often,  however,  it  is  an 
undistinguishing  or  a  mawkish  sensibility,  which,  while 
it  can  weep  over  the  picture  of  a  dead  Gipsy,  can  wring 
the  living  heart  of  a  loving  father.  That  by  inflaming 


88  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

the  imagination,  interesting  the  affections,  and  exciting 
an  interest  in  books,  they  may  be  useful  to  some  minds, 
and,  indeed,  to  most  minds  in  certain  moods,  must  be  ad- 
mitted; but  since  the  good  they  accomplish  may  be 
effected  by  works  of  unquestionable  tendency,  why  resort 
to  such  as  intoxicate  while  they  imparadise,  bewilder 
while  they  allure,  and  emasculate  while  they  excite? 
The  higher  forms  of  poetry,  philosophy,  and  religion  are 
Bufficiently  fascinating  and  energizing  to  all  the  faculties. 

Let  us  come  to  the  higher  ends  of  reading — to  inform, 
to  balance,  and  to  stimulate  the  mind,  to  form  the  style 
and  to  reform  the  heart. 

To  inform  the  mind.  The  great  purpose  of  education 
is  to  develop  and  train  the  faculties;  in  doing  this  we 
must  necessarily  give  some  information;  but  the  col- 
lege, when  she  graduates,  turns  you  over  to  testimony  .or 
observation.  It  was  the  error  of  the  schoolmen  to  sup- 
pose that  all  knowledge  was  contained  in  the  soul ;  hence, 
they  wasted  life  in  seeking  to  find  out  external  things  by 
agitating  their  own  intellects,  as  if  matter  could  be  made 
by  shaking  emptiness.  Although  the  theory  of  the 
schoolmen  has  been  exploded,  their  practice  has  not. 
We  still  need  to  be  reminded  that  we  can  not  draw  con- 
clusions without  premises;  that  from  nothing  cornea 
nothing,  however  much  it  may  be  agitated.  In  judging, 
remembering,  analyzing,  and  generalizing,  the  philoso- 
pher may  have  great  advantages  over  the  savage;  but  for 
the  facts  the  one  is  as  dependent  as  the  other.  An  edu- 
cated young  man  has  fundamental  knowledge  of  nature 
and  life,  of  history  and  geography;  but  let  him  remem- 
ber that  his  knowledge  is  but  fundamental — that  he  must 
build  upon  it,  and  that  his  very  foundations  are  liable  to 
decay  unless  he  is  constantly  carrying  forward  the  super- 
structure. History,  civil,  ecclesiastical,  and  natural,  are 
before  him.  Of  the  first  two  he  has  an  outline — general 


MISCELLANEOUS     READING  89 

notions  of  the  stream  of  time;  names  of  nations,  their 
rise,  decline,  and  fall;  great  epochas,  leading  events,  dis- 
tinguished names,  and  a  table  of  dates — a  mere  chart  to 
give  interest  and  direction  to  the  voyage  before  him  So, 
too,  of  natural  history — his  knowledge  is  but  skeleton,  to 
be  clothed  and  animated  by  a  patient  continuance  in  the 
study  of  nature  under  the  guidance  of  its  more  eminent 
interrogators.  In  this  department  of  learning,  if  we  be 
not  studious  we  must  ever  recede.  Chemistry,  geology, 
etc.,  have  just  passed  the  pillars  of  Hercules,  and  are 
cutting  with  their  keels  an  unknown  ocean  toward  an  un- 
known world.  Geography,  once  a  fixed,  is  now  a  progress- 
ive study,  following  commerce,  and  science,  and  Chris- 
tian sympathy  into  all  regions,  and  mapping  past  events, 
human  progress,  and  providential  designs  among  all  peo- 
ples. But  what  shall  we  read  upon  these  subjects?  I 
give  no  list  of  books;  but,  since  by  reading  according  to 
a  well-conceived  plan  we  shall  have  clearer  views  and 
speedier  progress,  I  refer  you  to  some  such  "  Hand-Book 
of  Literature"  as  Bishop  Potter's.  Be  not  alarmed  at 
the  size  of  the  catalogue.  What  can  not  be  accom- 
plished in  one  year  may  in  ten;  nor  are  all  histories  to  be 
studied  with  equal  care.  God,  in  his  word,  has  epito- 
mized the  history  of  many  generations,  indicated  the 
chief  points  of  attention  in  the  field  of  later  history — 
the  Assyrian,  Medo-Persian,  Grecian,  and  Roman — fur- 
nished in  his  providence  the  most  able  authors — Polyb- 
ius,  Livy,  Thucydides,  Xenophon,  Rollin,  Gibbon,  etc. — 
to  illustrate  them,  and  given  us  a  clew  to  connect  their 
various  parts  and  trace  their  important  bearings.  We 
may  pass  rapidly,  by  the  aid  of  Hallam,  through  the 
dark  region  of  medieval  history,  and  obtain  imperfect 
glances  on  the  pages  of  Hume,  Robertson,  Russel,  etc., 
of  the  more  important  events  of  modern  times.  For 
current  history  we  need  a  well-edited  daily,  a  weekly  con- 


90  EDUCATIONAL      ESSAYS. 

iensing  its  news,  a  monthly  digesting  the  literature  of 
the  times,  and  a  quarterly  converging  the  mature  thoughts 
of  the  passing  age.  Let  us  not  spend  too  much  time 
upon  them;  the  periodical  press  is,  to  a  great  extent, 
trash;  it  caters  for  society,  instead  of  elevating  it;  its 
miscellany  is  often  weak  and  affected;  its  essays  conten- 
tious, deceitful,  superficial;  its  criticisms  mere  moths, 
fretting  what  they  can  not  produce;  its  intelligence 
chiefly  is  to  be  valued.  Nevertheless,  it  is  indispensable : 
it  lights  up  the  world,  though  with  gas;  it  circles  the 
earth,  though  like  the  stars,  in  appearance  only;  it  runs 
to  and  fro,  though  it  does  not  always  increase  knowledge. 
There  are,  too,,  noble  exceptions  among  editors — men 
whose  essays  are  worthy  to  be  studied  as  well  for  matter 
as  style. 

The  history  of  human  ideas  or  philosophy  should  be 
pondered.  You  have  seen  this  tower  of  Babel  at  a  dis- 
tance; to  mark  its  successive  stories,  to  listen  to  the  con- 
fusion of  its  tongues,  and  to  trace  its  moss-grown  ruins, 
is  a  task  at  once  curious  and  profitable.  Although  no 
book  is  prepared  for  this  purpose,  yet  we  may  extend  our 
explorations  by  the  light  of  such  works  as  Enfield's  or 
Brucker's.  The  acquisition  of  extensive  and  accurate 
knowledge  of  men  and  things  of  the  past  and  present  is 
indispensable,  as  well  to  a  just  appreciation  of  the  best 
authors,  as  the  proper  employment  of  our  own  powers. 
It  is  thus  we  grow  familiar  with  the  muses,  and  make  all 
nature  vocal;  thus  we  evoke  Minerva  from  the  brain,  and 
give  a  harp  to  our  sounding  bowels.  To  philosophy  let 
us  add  divinity.  Concerning  the  relations  of  the  soul  to 
God,  or  life  to  immortality,  we  can  know  only  what  is  re- 
vealed; for  such,  knowledge  it  is  vain  to  beat  about  in 
nature,  or  turn  upon  ourselves,  for  it  is  above  both.  Pen- 
etrated with  this  truth,  we  should  come  to  the  Bibhi 
with  the  docility  of  a  child,  and  the  awe  of  a  prophet. 


MISCELLANEOUS     READING  91 

If  you  have  received  it  as  a  revelation,  it  is  too  late  to 
cavil,  argue,  or  doubt,  concerning  it.  You  must  receive 
a  prophet  in  the  name  of  a  prophet  if  you  would  receive 
a  prophet's  reward.  However  humbling  to  the  pride  of 
reason  may  be  this  unquestioning  belief,  I  enjoin  it  with 
the  more  confidence  because  you  will  accord  it  to  some- 
thing. You  will  seek  rest  in  something  infallible.  "I 
am  come  in  my  Father's  name,  and  ye  receive  me  not;  if 
another  come  in  his  own  name,  him  ye  will  receive." 
A.las!  there  is  as  much  difference  between  the  revelations 
of  Scripture  concerning  Divine  things  and  the  specula- 
tions of  men,  as  between  the  solid  world  which  Columbus 
discovered,  and  the  dark,  agitated,  and  liquid  chaos 
which,  beyond  a  certain  horizon,  presented  itself  to  the 
imaginations  of  men  before  the  days  of  that  immortal 
navigator.  And  here  let  me  advise  you  to  read  no  skep- 
tical works;  they  are  unnecessary:  a  proposition  and  its 
contradictory  need  not  both  be  investigated;  if  one  be 
true,  the  other  is  false.  You  nave  assented,  after  satis- 
factory proof  and  argumentation,  to  the  truth  of  the 
Bible,  and  refuted  the  chief  objections  and  arguments  of 
infidels.  What  more  is  needed?  The  contradictory  of 
the  proposition  may,  however,  be  proved  false  directly,  as 
well  as  indirectly,  without  any  examination  of  infidel 
labors.  It  is  nearly  two  thousand  years  since  skeptics 
undertook  to  overthrow  the  Bible,  and  it  is  now  more 
firmly,  and  intelligently,  and  extensively  believed  than 
ever.  If  the  allies  of  the  European  west  had  been  bom- 
barding Sevastopol  without  intermission,  with  the  pro- 
gressive improvements  in  the  art  of  war,  for  two  thou- 
«and  years,  and  yet  found  the  fortifications  of  that  port 
now  ten  times  as  strong  as  ever,  you  would  conclude, 
without  examining  their  parallels  or  batteries,  that  Sevas- 
topol is  impregnable.  If  infidelity  finds  the  Bible  a 
thousand  times  more  firm  after  it  has  been  arguing 


92  EDUCATIONAL      ESSAYS. 

against  it  for  eighteen  hundred  years,  what  will  it  find 
after  it  has  argued  in  its  most  approved  style  for  eighteen 
hundred  years  more? 

We  may  take  it  for  granted,  that  if  it  had  one  reliable 
argument  it  would  in  this  wicked  world  be  familiar  as  a 
household  word.  Moreover,  the  arguments  of  unbeliev- 
ers are  self-destructive;  put  them  in  parallel  columns, 
and  you  may  reduce  them  to  zero  by  cancellation.  An- 
cient infidels  believed  that  Christ  wrought  miracles  by 
the  agency  of  devils;  modern  ones  believe  there  is 
neither  miracle  nor  devil. 

If  you  read  these  works,  they  must  produce  either 
some  effect  upon  your  minds  or  none :  if  none,  you  lose 
your  time  and  pains;  if  some,  they  must  either  shake 
your  faith  or  overthrow  it;  if  they  merely  shake  it,  they 
leave  you  a  prey  to  doubt,  which  will  distress  you  the 
more  in  proportion  as  you  need  rest  of  mind;  if  they 
overthrow  your  faith,  they  leave  you  exposed  to  universal 
skepticism  concerning  the  past,  impenetrable  gloom  con- 
cerning the  future,  and  the  wild  play  of  the  passions  re- 
pressed only  by  very  imperfect  restraints. 

Another  object  of  reading  is  to  keep  the  mind  bal 
anced.  There  are  three  great  causes  of  mental  malad- 
justment— the  hand  of  nature,  the  lapse  of  time,  and  the 
pursuits  of  men.  The  college  course  has  been  wisely  ar- 
ranged to  develop  and  train  all  the  faculties;  and 
although  it  does  not  correct  all  irregularities  and  make  all 
minds  symmetrical,  it  may,  when  properly  pursued,  pre- 
vent intellectual  deformity.  On  leaving  college  we  grad- 
ually undergo  alterations:  the  sensibilities  and  the  will 
gain  upon  the  intellect;  desire  of  action,  power,  money, 
fame,  increases  and  rages,  and  in  the  conflicts  of  life  we 
acquire  a  persistence,  a  firmness,  a  steadfastness,  which 
we  had  not  before  exhibited :  the  intellectual  states  are 
also  affected — imagination  and  memory  lose  power,  ab- 


MISCELLANEOUS     READINO  93 

Btraction  and  reason  gain.  Occupation  will  modify  these 
changes.  As  the  foot  of  the  Indian  becomes  fleet,  and 
the  eye  of  the  sailor  far-seeing,  so  the  mind  ot'  the  lawyer 
becomes  acute,  of  the  physician  sagacious  and  practical, 
of  the  clergyman  speculative  and  comprehensive.  A  dis- 
cerning person  can,  at  a  glance,  determine  a  man's  pro- 
fession, so  deeply  does  it  impress  itself  upon  mind  and 
manners.  We  should  strive  to  prevent  this  daguerreo- 
typing  influence,  and  to  secure  a  free  movement  for  all 
our  powers.  Hence,  if  imagination  begin  to  fail,  read 
poetry;  if  business  absorb  the  mind,  study  history  till  its 
characters,  its  events,  its  philosophy,  arrest  the  attention 
and  eclipse  the  trifles  of  the  passing  hour;  if  in  the  mul- 
titude of  objects  and  amusements  your  mind  is  losing  its 
concentrativeness,  recur  to  mathematics,  which,  like  a 
moral  ladder,  will  keep  you  watchful  as  you  ascend  from 
round  to  round;  if  in  the  whirlpool  of  life  you  grow  con- 
tent with  swimming  superfices,  return  to  the  diving-bell 
of  philosophy;  and  if  in  your  association  with  the  mass 
you  become  averse  to  ratiocination,  and  prone  to  take 
principles  on  trust,  to  leap  to  conclusions,  and  to  argue 
ad  captandum,  go  to  the  gymnasium  of  the  schoolmen. 
There  are,  however,  many  works  equally  strengthening 
and  more  accessible  than  those  of  scholasticism :  such  as 
Chillingworth's  defense  of  Protestantism,  which  it  is  said 
Daniel  Webster  read  once  a  year  to  sharpen  his  logical 
skill;  Fletcher's  "Checks,"  of  which  a  lawyer  and  an 
enemy  said,  "This  argument  will  hold  water;"  Berkley's 
Minute  Philosopher,  which  it  is  stated  Robert  Hall  was 
accustomed  to  read  regularly  before  he  commenced  that 
mighty  and  majestic  movement  of  mind  which  often 
made  his  pulpit  like  unto  Mount  Sinai ;  Wesley's  Ser- 
mons, as  clear  in  logic  as  fervent  in  rhetoric,  like  the 
§ea  of  mingled  glass  in  apocalyptic  vision — with  lightning 
penetration  he  cleaves  the  forms  of  error  till  he  reaches 


94  EDUCATIONAL      ESSAYS. 

tl.e  reservoir  of  first  truths,  and,  with  a  profound  anal- 
ysis, he  not  only  guides  you  into  the  depths  of  pagan 
metaphysics,  but  out  of  them. 

There  are  who  object  to  this  direction,  and  think  that 
a  man  should  concentrate  all  his  powers  upon  his  pro- 
fession— if  lawyer,  he  should  let  all  his  wisdom  run  tc 
eubtility;  if  poet,  to  fancy — and  who  look  suspiciously 
on  one  who  ventures  beyond  his  ordinary  range,  as  if  he 
were  doing  injustice  to  his  patrons.  True,  in  order  to 
shine  we  must  converge  our  light;  equally  true,  that  we 
can  not  illustrate  our  own  profession  without  ascending 
or  descending,  if  you  please,  into  others.  We  could  not 
so  easily  survey  a  plain  by  walking  continually  within  it 
as  by  ascending  some  eminence  that  overlooks  it;  nor 
could  we  form  a  just  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  a  mount- 
ain without  descending  to  the  lower  peaks.  I  believe 
in  the  communion  of  sciences  as  well  as  the  communion 
of  saints.  It  was  the  boast  of  Voltaire  that  he  had 
discovered  the  island  of  England,  so  ignorant  were  his 
countrymen  of  its  literature.  There  are  many  learned 
bodies  to  whom  mathematics  and  poetry  are  unknown 
lands,  and  who  think  of  law  as  good  only  for  horse-thieves 
and  physic  for  cutting  off  legs.  Did  the  peculiar  genius 
of  the  French  cease  to  shine  after  they  had  been  intro- 
duced to  Bacon  and  Newton,  and  would  gentlemen  be 
less  fitted  to  adorn  one  profession  by  some  knowledge  of 
another?  Name  a  science  to  which  any  profession  does 
not  stand  related  or  from  which  it  may  not  draw  illustra- 
tions and  proofs.  Name  a  man  that  has  carried  forward 
his  profession  who  is  not  of  general  and  varied  reading 
and  study.  How  did  the  Chinese  become  sluggish,  or 
the  monks  of  past  ages  mentally  blind,  but  by  shutting 
themselves  up?  How  have  some  of  the  greatest  phi- 
losophers become  short-sighted  by  confining  their  atten- 
tion to  minute  points?  Be  not  a  " Know-Nothing"  in 


MISCELLANEOUS     READING  95 

your  profession,  rather  a  "Know-Something"  out  of  it; 
and  remember  that  diverse  knowledges  may  dwell  to- 
gether like  soul  and  body.  But  what  if  your  reading 
can  not  all  be  made  tributary  to  your  profession  or 
pursuit?  You  have  a  higher  mission — the  cultivation 
of  yourselves.  He  is  narrow-minded,  indeed,  who  will 
not  visit  a  neighbor's  hearth  unless  he  can  bake  his  own 
cakes  upon  its  coals. 

Another  object  of  reading  is  to  form  the  style.  Works 
of  rhetoric  should  be  studied;  but  it  is  not  by  the  phi- 
losophy of  criticism  that  we  can  form  a  habit  of  writing 
felicitously.  As  by  associating  with  gentlemen  we  ac- 
quire the  manners  of  gentlemen,  so  by  reading  the  best 
writers  we  attain  to  the  art  of  good  writing.  ''It  is  im- 
possible," said  Seneca,  "to  approach  the  light  without  de- 
riving some  faint  coloring  from  it,  or  to  remain  long  among 
precious  odors  without  bearing  away  with  us  some  portion 
of  the  fragrance.1'  We  shall  more  rapidly  improve  if  we 
occasionally  apply  our  rules  of  criticism,  that  by  ana- 
lyzing the  beauties  of  the  author  we  may  more  perfectly 
relish  them,  and  by  recognizing  the  principles  upon  which 
they  are  founded  more  readily  reproduce  them.  More- 
over, every  author  has  his  faults  and  imperfections,  which 
we  shall  be  liable  to  imitate,  if  we  read  without  discrim- 
ination; indeed,  so  naturally  do  we  transfer  our  admira- 
tion from  excellences  to  blemishes  associated  with  them, 
that  we  are  as  prone  to  imitate  the  vices  as  the  virtues  of 
a  model.  We  should  not  confine  ourselves  to  a  single 
writer,  however  excellent  he  may  be,  lest  he  bore  our 
ears  through  with  an  awl.  Happily  there  is  a  great 
variety  of  master-pieces  in  composition.  It  is  not  our 
purpose  to  enumerate  them.  Suffer  me  to  remark  that, 
as  a  general  rule,  the  older  authors,  who,  writing  be- 
fore learning  became  widely  diffused,  addressed  them- 
selves to  educated  minds  rather  than  the  populace,  such 


96  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

ts  Addison,  Swift,  Goldsmith,  Pope,  Cowper,  and  Young, 
are  preferable;  there  are,  however,  recent  writers  whose 
style  is  beautiful,  as  Burke,  Hall,  Macaulay,  Chancing, 
Prescott,  Irving.  We  should  be  guided  in  our  selection 
by  our  peculiarity  of  genius — for  each  man  has  a  pe- 
culiarity of  intellectual  character.  Some  men  excel  in 
the  sententious  style,  others  in  the  flowing;  some  are 
bold  and  figurative,  others  simple  and  delicate.  If  we 
are  running  our  peculiarity  to  an  extreme,  we  must  check 
it  by  familiarity  with  a  writer  of  opposite  tendency.  If 
you  are  too  figurative,  ponder  Paley;  if  too  terse,  turn  to 
Johnson;  if  wanting  in  energy,  read  Carlyle;  if  in 
purity,  read  Swift;  if  in  elegance,  Burke.  After  all,  let 
us  bear  in  mind  that  style  is  of  secondary  consideration. 
We  should  never  run  the  risk  of  weakening  our  under- 
standing or  corrupting  our  principles  for  the  sake  of 
polishing  our  periods.  I  should  fear  to  come  within  the 
fascinations  of  either  Walter  Scott  or  Dr.  Channing. 
The  more  we  think  and  feel,  the  less  we  need  study  style  : 
an  overflowing  mind,  like  an  overflowing  river,  will  move 
gracefully ;  a  heart  on  fire,  like  a  house  on  fire,  will  burn 
sublimely. 

Another  important  object  of  reading  is  to  stimulate 
the  mind.  Let  me  caution  you  against  attempting  to 
stimulate  the  intellect  through  the  body  in  any  other 
way  than  by  taking  care  of  your  health.  That  the  soul, 
like  the  embryo,  is  liable  to  be  influenced  by  that  in 
which  it  reposes  is  not  denied,  but  the  influence  is  a 
general  one;  the  supposition  that  we  can  excite  imagina 
tion  by  opium,  memory  by  tea,  or  attention  by  whisky,  as 
we  can  rouse  the  liver  by  calomel,  or  the  nose  by  snuff, 
is  a  relic  of  ancient  pathology,  which  located  understand- 
ing in  the  brain,  anger  in  the  heart,  and  sensuality  in 
the  liver,  and  sought  to  purify  the  soul  by  purging  the 
body.  Yet  some  still  seek  to  supply  genius  or  atone  for 


MISCELLANEOUS     READING  97 

idleness  by  a  resort  to  stimulants  and  narcotics,  pointing 
to  Lord  Byron  as  an  example;  but  if  the  bottle  could 
make  poets  the  world  would  be  full  of  them.  It  may 
produce  a  temporary  excitement,  under  the  influence  of 
which  men  may  compose  rapidly  that  which  they  have 
matured;  and  so  of  narcotics;  but  the  compositions  thus 
produced  are  not  of  the  highest  order;  they  seem  to  be 
the  result  of  a  wild  and  weird  inspiration,  such  as 
breathes  in  the  Ancient  Mariner  of  Coleridge  and  the 
Raven  of  Poe.  Like  the  henbane  which  infatuated  the 
ancient  pythoness  on  her  tripod,  they  produce  a  species 
of  moral  convulsion  suitable  for  divination  and  devil- 
dealing,  and  should  be  reserved  for  the  regions  of  magio 
and  superstition,  or  the  age  of  ecstasies  and  dreams  If 
you  would  have  a  clear,  strong  intellect,  eschew  them. 
In  the  soul,  as  in  the  body,  the  law  is  deeply  written: 
"In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread."  Bo 
not  deceived ;  truth  is  born  only  with  travail ;  the  spirit 
is  enfranchised  only  with  agony.  Nevertheless,  there 
are  aids  to  the  laboring  soul.  Is  it  sluggish,  you  may 
rouse  it :  indirectly  by  a  play  of  Shakspeare  or  a  chapter 
of  Demosthenes;  directly  by  a  book  of  Milton  or  a  page 
of  Ossian.  In  selecting  for  this  purpose  we  must  imitate 
the  discretion  of  the  husbandman,  who,  having  learned 
the  varieties  of  his  soil,  scatters  ashes,  lime,  and  manure, 
and  casts  in  the  wheat,  the  barley,  and  the  rye  each  in 
its  appointed  time  and  place.  To  an  imaginative  mind, 
imaginative  works  are  the  proper  stimulants;  to  a  ration- 
alive,  argumentative  ones.  If,  being  tasked,  you  would 
excite  your  mind  at  otice,  turn  to  some  choice  collection 
of  stirring  pieces — dramatic,  senatorial,  or  martial — such 
as  start  the  soul  like  the  tup  of  the  reveille;  and  when 
you  have  given  "  Hail  Columbia"  to  your  heart,  givt 
your  heart  to  the  pen.  But  it  is  not  enough  to  rouse  the 
soul;  you  must  give  it  material ;  and  there  are  works  which 

7 


98  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

serve  this  purpose — products  of  original,  profound  think- 
ing, and,  like  leviathans,  few  and  easily  distinguished,  for 
they  make  the  sea  of  thought  around  them  boil  like  a 
pot.  Some  of  these  are  as  gas  solidified ;  others  as  un- 
wrought  gold ;  others  like  the  hound  that  puts  you  upon 
the  track  of  the  game.  The  last  are  the  most  valuable; 
it  is  easy  to  let  that  which  is  compressed  resume  its 
original  form  or  to  mold  the  molten  metal;  it  is  more 
difficult  and  more  healthful  to  pursue  and  overtake  what 
has  never  been  caught.  Coleridge's  Aids  to  Reflection 
is  an  example  of  the  first  kind;  Butler's  Analogy,  of  the 
second;  Bacon's  Advancement  of  Learning,  of  the  third. 
Scarce  a  jar  of  modern  metaphysical  gas  that  has  not 
been  expanded  from  Coleridge;  scarce  a  beautiful  fabric 
of  recent  time  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity  for  which 
Butler  has  not  furnished  the  raw  material ;  scarce  a  dis- 
covery in  modern  science  since  the  days  of  James  II  to 
which  Bacon  has  not  pointed;  and  yet  they  can  do 
more — the  nature  of  the  soil  varies  the  crop  even  from 
the  same  seed.  The  deficiencies  noted  by  Lord  Verulain 
yet  unsupplied  are  scores.  All  books  that  contain  more 
than  they  express,  that  make  the  mind  pause  as  it  passes, 
that  turn  it  back  upon  its  own  resources,  or  lead  it  on 
to  new  regions,  are  invaluable;  they  are  educators; 
among  ordinary  books  as  Socrates  among  sophists.  Most 
books  are  afraid  to  let  the  readers  go  alone  a  single  yard, 
lest  they  dash  their  foot  against  a  stone.  Leave  such  to 
minds  that  need  leading-strings.  Seek  books  like  unto 
blood-hounds,  and  hie  to  the  chase  :  there  are  many  such 
absolutely,  though  few,  perhaps,  will  prove  so  relatively 
to  all  minds.  Much  depends  on  the  reader's  genius  and 
habits;  there  are  some  men  who  can  make  almost  any 
book  suggestive,  like  the  raven  which,  in  dry  weather, 
makes  the  scanty  water  rise  to  her  beak  by  dropping  peb- 
bles into  the  hollow  tree. 


MISCELLANEOUS     READING  99 

If  we  have  a  particular  subject  on  hand,  most  well- 
written  works  on  that  subject  will  prove  suggestive.  In 
order  to  write  orations,  read  orations ;  to  write  essays, 
read  essays;  only  see  that  they  are  models,  as  Cicero  and 
Addison.  So  if  we  have  to  write  on  a  particular  subject, 
as  the  atonement,  we  may  read  any  strong  work  on  it. 
Let  us  guard,  however,  against  imitating  the  author;  and 
this  can  be  done  by  making  a  sketch  upon  the  theme 
before  we  read  upon  it.  This  we  shall  not  be  likely  to 
abandon ;  for  a  man  loves  a  club-footed  child  of  his  own 
better  than  a  perfect  one  of  his  neighbor's;  and  what- 
ever thoughts  occur  to  us,  being  used  in  our  own  order, 
and  standing  in  new  relations,  are  our  own,  as  the  waters 
of  the  Mississippi  are  no  longer  the  Mississippi  when  in 
the  bosom  of  the  gulf.  The  most  suggestive  book  in  the 
world  is  the  Bible.  For  thousands  of  years  it  has  given 
activity  and  direction  to  the  best  portions  of  the  world's 
mind.  It  has  been  during  all  this  time  the  fountain  of 
innumerable  sermons  and  books,  no  two  of  which  are 
alike;  it  is  suggestive  of  trains  of  thought  and  rhetorical 
ornaments,  of  new  themes  and  new  arguments,  of  ever- 
purer  emotions  and  ampler  views;  it  is  an  everlasting 
feast  of  fat  things — a  tower,  where  the  watchmen  may 
observe  the  world's  night  and  hail  its  morning — a  Cas- 
talian  fountain,  fed  from  perpetual  snows — a  furnace, 
ever  forging  new  and  glowing  forms  of  wisdom — a  cease- 
less orchestra  of  angels,  lapping  the  soul  in  celestial 
music — a  calm  sunlight,  consuming  the  vail  that  covers 
mortal  eyes — a  mountain  raised  between  eternity  and 
time,  from  whose  summit  we  may  look  upon  both.  Above 
all,  this  is  the  book  to  accomplish  the  last  great  purpose 
of  reading — the  improvement  of  the  heart,  which  I  must 
dismiss  with  a  word.  I  would  not  undervalue  Taylor  or 
Wesley,  Gurnal  or  Baxter,  Sherlock  or  Fuller,  but  if 
neither  the  Holy  Living  and  Dying,  the  Saint's  Rest, 


100  EDUCATIONAL      KSSAYS. 

the  Christian  Armor,  nor  the  Reformed  Pastor,  can  move 
a  cold  heart,  lay  upon  it  live  coals  directly  from  the  altar. 
One  word  more.  Books  arc  most  suggestive  and  ex- 
citing in  youth.  With  you  the  soil  is  plowed  and  the 
clods  broken;  cast  now  the  seed  into  the  furrow,  that, 
when  the  earth  mourneth,  and  the  vine  languisheth,  and 
the  joy  of  the  harp  ceaseth,  it  shall  not  be  as  the  shak 
ing  of  an  olive-tree  or  as  the  gleaning  of  grapes  when 
the  vintage  is  done;  but  that  your  barns  may  be  filled 
with  plenty,  and  your  presses  burst  out  with  new  wine 
The  mind  cultivated  from  youth  puts  on  its  noblest  crown 
when  the  almond-tree  nourishes,  and  enjoys  a  marvelous 
mental  second  sight  when  they  that  look  out  of  the  win- 
dows are  darkened;  judges  have  given  their  ablest  decis- 
ions, physicians  exhibited  their  highest  skill,  and  divinen 
produced  their  richest  works,  when  the  grasshopper  was  a 
burden 


HINTS  TO   YOUTH  101 


jjints  10  g0nt(j. 

WE  hope  that  we  have  many  young  readers.  For  such 
we  delight  to  write;  because  we  may  expect,  without 
much  vanity,  to  profit  as  well  as  to  please  them.  Should 
grave  wisdom  direct  its  eye  hither,  we  beseech  it  to  turn 
over,  while  we  endeavor  to  impart  to  youthful  friends  the 
benefit  of  our  own  experience  and  observation  relative  to 
certain  small  matters. 

Take  care  of  the  borfy.  It  is  a  beautiful  abode  of  the 
soul — all  its  apartments  and  furniture  evince  Divine  wis- 
dom and  goodness — it  is  a  system  of  useful  instruments, 
by  which  the  spirit  iriay  acquire  knowledge  and  strength, 
and  achieve  works  of  wisdom  and  beneficence — it  is  a 
medium  of  communication  with  nature  and  with  man — 
it  is  called,  in  Scripture,  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and,  in  its  incorruptible,  spiritual,  and  glorious  form,  is 
to  be  the  eternal  habitation  of  the  redeemed,  and  sancti- 
fied, and  glorified  soul.  As  we  value  the  comfort  and 
usefulness  of  the  spirit,  we  should  prize  the  health  of 
the  body — as  we  honor  God,  and  admire  his  works,  let 
us  be  careful  of  that  beautiful  specimen  of  his  handiwork 
which  he  has  committed  to  our  keeping. 

To  secure  the  health  of  the  body,  it  is  necessary  to 
exercise  its  members  at  least  three  hours  a  day.  That 
employment  or  pastime  is  best  which  calls  into  exercise 
the  greatest  number  of  muscles. 

But  exercise,  to  be  useful,  must  be  taken  with  a  good 
will,  and  in  a  good  humor.  A  vigorous  circulation  re- 


102  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

quires  a  cheerful  heart,  and  an  clastic  footstep  demands 
a  buoyant  spirit.  Do  not  walk  the  street  with  a  meas- 
ured pace  and  downcast  look,  like  a  soldier  marking  time 
to  the  "Dead  March."  Don't  work  your  problems,  nor 
mature  your  griefs,  nor  plan  your  enterprises  in  your 
rambles.  But  "over  the  hills  and  far  away" — rinount 
Bucephalus,  and,  facing  the  morning  sun,  plunge  into 
the  forest,  and  brush  the  dew  from  the  bushes — or,  call- 
ing your  favorite  dog,  in  the  mellowed  light  of  evening, 
chase  the  fox,  or  tree  the  coon,  or  track  the  rabbit — or, 
climbing  the  mountain-side,  look  out  from  its  misty 
brow — or  sit  by  the  cataract  and  commune  with  the  dash- 
ing waters,  and  scattering  spray,  and  dancing  rainbows, 
and  eternal  murmurs — or  chase  the  warbling  rivulet, 
and  gaze  on  the  beauteous  forms  mirrored  in  its  clear 
waters — or,  if  you  please,  look  up  cowslips  on  the  mead- 
ows, or  poppies  in  the  rye,  or  tulips  in  the  valley  for 
your  "Ain  kin'  dearie,  0" — or,  when  in  riper  years, 
run  races  with  the  little  ones  in  the  orchard,  or  through 
the  vineyards,  or  over  the  lawn.  Let  your  spirit  learn 
to  be  joyous  in  the  fields  of  nature,  and  to  catch  the 
inspiration  of  its  light,  and  freshness,  and  green.  So 
shall  you  have  a  merry  pulse,  a  joyous  arm,  and  a  lively 
footstep. 

Inactivity  is  the  temporal  ruin  of  the  man.  It  brings 
disease,  cuts  short  the  days,  impairs  the  mind,  disturbs 
the  temper,  makes  the  subject  and  his  companions  miser- 
able, and  peoples  fancy's  airy  world  with  a  thousand  hide- 
ous forms.  Men  are  not  always  mindful  that  by  indo- 
lence they  induce  disease.  No  law  of  nature  can  be 
violated  with  impunity;  but  because  sentence  against 
lounging  is  not  speedily  executed,  therefore  the  heart  of 
the  sons  of  men  is  set  in  them  to  be  idle.  Though  the 
sentence,  however,  be  delayed,  it  is  sure  to  come.  Jus- 
tice may  hobble  along  with  a  lame  foot;  but  he  will  over- 


HI-NTS   TO   YOUTH.  103 

take  the  sinner  at  last.  You  might  as  well  hope  to  stop  a 
race-horse  on  the  brink  of  a  precipice,  as  to  avert  disease 
if  you  fail  to  exercise  the  muscles.  And  when  disease 
comes,  no  repentance  or  reformation  shall  seduce  it  from 
its  work,  though  health  be  sought  "carefully  with  tears.'' 

Be  as  mindful,  therefore,  to  take  daily  exercise  as 
daily  food.  Do  not  say,  "I  have  no  time."  To  neglect 
the  body  is  to  lose  time,  by  shortening  your  days.  Do 
not  say,  "  I  will  sacrifice  my  health  to  the  improvement 
of  my  mind."  You  will  find  the  mind  rapidly  fail  under 
such  a  course.  Whatever  be  your  mental  occupation, 
whether  it  demand  memory,  or  fancy,  or  thought,  or 
feeling,  you  can  do  more  in  five  minutes,  with  a  body 
renovated  in  the  fields,  and  a  mind  inspired  with  nature's 
fairest  works,  than  in  five  hours,  under  the  influence  of  a 
sluggish  pulse. 

Would  you  be  healthy,  be  careful  in  relation  to  youi 
diet.  As  this  is  not  a  professional  work,  physiology 
would  be  out  of  place  here.  But  suffer  us  to  give  a 
few  plain  directions,  which  we  hope  you  will  take  upon 
trust  when  we  assure  you  that  they  pass  current  with  the 
doctors. 

Though  the  appetite  is  the  index  to  nature's  wants,  it 
is  not  always  a  true  index.  In  disease  it  must  often  be 
disregarded,  and  in  health  it  must  never  be  fully  satiated. 
Rise  from  breakfast  with  appetite,  if  you  would  not  sit 
down  to  dinner  without  it.  Ours  is  a  land  of  abundance, 
a-nd  its  inhabitants  have  acquired  habits  of  indulgence 
unknown  in  many  parts  of  the  old  world.  If  persons  are 
abstemious  they  will  rarely  suffer  from  disease.  The 
blood  will  course  freely  through  the  veins,  the  brain  will 
sit  at  ease,  and  a  feeling  of  comfort  will  spread  over 
every  organ  and  member.  The  intellect  will  feel  at 
liberty,  and  bound  with  elastic  step  over  the  most  diffi- 
cult steeps  of  science,  or  the  most  romantic  fields  of 


104  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

fancy.  Abstinence  is  often  of  service,  especially  after 
indulgence.  Was  it  not  Bonaparte  who  said,  "When 
my  stomach  gets  out  of  humor,  I  withhold  supplies  till 
it  cries  for  mercy?"  Do  not  suppose  that  I  would  have 
you  so  abstemious  as  to  induce  feebleness.  While  the 
body  would  lose  much,  the  soul  would  gain  nothing  from 
such  a  regimen.  A  vigorous  intellect  requires  a  healthy 
brain,  and  a  cheerful  brain  demands  a  rich  blood.  If 
you  eat  to  repletion,  however,  you  sin,  and  must  suffer. 
Under  these  circumstances,  if  you  take  proper  exercise, 
your  food  may  be  digested;  but  the  blood  will  be  in- 
creased— its  vessels  enlarged — its  circulation  accelerated, 
and  a  state  of  plethora  will  be  induced,  which  will  render 
you  liable  to  acute  disease  in  various  forms.  But  if  you 
add  indolence  to  gluttony,  your  digestive  apparatus  will 
fail  under  its  accumulated  labors,  and  dyspepsia,  with  all 
its  crudities  and  acids,  its  melancholy  apprehensions  and 
sour  spirits,  will  come  upon  you,  rendering  you  a  burden 
to  yourselves  and  to  others,  and  inducing  your  friends, 
perchance,  to  lock  you  up — in  an  editor's  office. 

In  reference  to  the  quality  of  food  it  matters  but  little, 
if  the  quantity  be  properly  regulated.  The  stomach  ia 
an  excellent  chemist,  and  can  analyze  and  compound 
almost  any  thing,  if  you  do  not  give  him  too  much  to 
do.  There  are  many  things,  however,  placed  on  the 
table,  which  ought  never  to  be  seen  there — such  as 
pastry  and  preserves.  If  I  had  unlimited  authority,  I 
would  banish  them  all.  "But  what  should  we  do  for 
dessert  when  favored  with  company?"  Why,  how  much 
better  is  a  plate  of  figs,  or  a  basket  of  apples,  or  a  few 
bunches  of  lucious  grapes,  than  pies,  cakes,  or  puddings? 
And  as  to  liquids,  cold  water,  milk  and  water,  or  lemon- 
ade, are  far  preferable  to  all  the  decoctions  of  foreign 
herbs.  The  former  invigorate,  the  latter  debilitate. 

But  I  fancy  a  reader  inquires,  "Is  the  writer  a  Gra- 


HINTS     TO     YOUTH.  105 

hainile?"  By  no  means.  We  believe  nature  intended 
that  a  man  should  have  a  mixed  diet  of  animal  and 
vegetable  food.  We  think  anatomy  and  physiology,  as 
well  as  experience,  teach  this  lesson.  Nevertheless,  we 
humbly  conceive  that  many  countries — among  them  our 
own — consume  too  much  animal  food.  Perhaps,  for 
sedentary  persons,  animal  food  once  a  day  is  sufficient. 

Be  careful  of  your  personal  appearance.  I  do  not  ask 
you  to  follow  the  fashions — to  lay  the  neck  bare  one  week, 
and  cover  it  with  curly  locks  the  next — to  comb  the  hair 
one  way  to-day  and  another  way  to-morrow;  but  I  do  ask 
you  to  have  as  much  mercy  upon  your  own  head  as  you 
do  upon  your  horse's;  and  while  you  direct  the  groom  to 
use  the  curry-comb,  see  that  the  barber  uses  the  comb. 
It  has  been  said  that  cleanliness  is  next  thing  to  godli- 
ness, and  we  have  often  wished  that  ablutions  were  a 
part  of  our  religion.  We  hope  to  see  the  day  when  the 
bath-room  shall  be  as  common  as  the  kitchen.  We 
think  we  shall  then  have  cleaner  prose,  clearer  music,  and 
sweeter  poetry.  The  mind  partakes  in  the  comforts  and 
distresses  of  the  body.  0,  for  clear  fountains  and  cool- 
ing streams!  Methinks  they  can  almost  put  out  the  fire 
of  passion,  and  spread  good  nature  through  the  soul. 
Would  you  be  in  good  humor  with  yourself,  pay  due 
respect  to  your  wash-stand.  In  cleanliness  is  seen  one 
of  the  great  differences  between  the  pagan  and  the 
Christian.  The  sweetness  of  the  sanctified  spirit  sheds 
its  influences  upon  the  person. 

Shall  we  be  considered  as  descending  if  we  allude  to 
apparel?  We  hate  foppishness — aping  great  men.  Be- 
cause a  prince,  afflicted  with  king's  evil,  conceals  his 
neck  in  a  high  cravat,  is  that  any  reason  why  we  should 
bind  up  ours?  Because  some  afflicted  queen  endeavors, 
by  the  form  of  her  dress,  to  hide  a  curvature  of  the 
•pine,  why  should  the  fair  of  America  imitate  her? 


106  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

Extravagance  in  dress  is  as  much  to  be  condemned  ua 
foppishness.  Let  the  ornaments  of  the  man  be  a  brill- 
iant mind,  a  holy  heart,  and  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit. 
Let  the  decorations  of  the  woman  be,  not  "  pearls,  or 
gold,  or  costly  array,"  but  modesty,  intelligence,  and  so 
briety.  A  Grecian  matron,  when  asked  for  her  orna- 
ments, said,  "The  virtues  of  my  husband  are  a  sufficient 
ornament  for  me."  Another,  when  challenged  for  her 
jewels,  summoned  her  sons.  It  is  proper,  however,  that 
our  garments  should  comport  with  the  habits  of  our 
country,  and  our  pursuits  and  standing  in  society;  and 
though  comfortable,  plain,  and  far  from  extravagant,  they 
should  evince  a  proper  respect  for  ourselves  and  our 
fellow-men.  We  believe  it  is  easier  to  go  through  the 
world  in  a  good  garment  than  in  a  ragged  one;  and  as  a 
man  is  responsible  for  all  the  influence  he  can  acquire, 
he  is  bound  to  secure  a  decent  apparel.  "  My  banker," 
said  one,  "always  makes  a  low  bow  to  my  new  coat,  and 
a  slight  one  to  my  old."  It  will  be  time  enough  when 
we  have  mastered  the  world  to  disregard  its  prejudices. 
We  pity  the  wife  who  is  not  as  careful  to  please  her  hus- 
band as  she  was,  when  a  maid,  to  please  her  beau. 

Be  mindful  of  your  manners.  True  politeness  is  of 
great  service.  Its  spring  is  good  nature.  One  may,  by 
reading  books  like  Chesterfield's,  and  mingling  in  pol- 
ished society,  acquire  certain  habits,  and  obtain  certain 
rules,  which  will  enable  him  to  pass  off  as  a  gentleman; 
but  unless  the  milk  of  human  kindness  flows  in  his  veins, 
and  a  just  regard  for  his  fellow-beings  finds  place  in  his 
heart,  his  politeness  will  be  but  disgusting  hypocrisy. 
Vain  is  the  attempt  to  deceive  the  world.  It  has  too 
sharp  an  eye,  and  too  thoughtful  a  brain.  Every  gesture 
and  compliment  is  a  matter  of  analysis,  and  through  the 
most  complicated  processes  of  investigation  is  traced  tc 
its  true  motive.  The  great  wor.d,  too,  is  a  good  physi 


HINTS    TO    YOUTH.  107 

ognomist,  and  knows  how  to  look  through  the  window 
of  the  soul.  To  be  polite  is  to  please,  but  an  attempt  to 
please  without  the  desire  is  worse  than  useless. 

The  best  maxims  of  politeness  are  found  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. Such  are  these  :  "  Be  kindly  affectioncd  one  to 
another  with  brotherly  love,  in  honor  preferring  one  an 
other;"  "Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens;"  "Let  no 
corrupt  communication  proceed  out  of  your  mouth,  but 
that  which  is  good  to  the  use  of  edifying,  that  it  may 
minister  grace  to  the  hearers;"  "'Wisdom  is  pure,  peace- 
able, gentle,  easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy  and 
good  fruits,  without  partiality  and  without  hypocrisy;" 
"  Charity  vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not  easily  provoked, 
thinketh  no  evil,"  etc.  Let  that  mind  be  in  you  which  was 
in  Christ  Jesus,  and  you  can  not  but  be  polite;  for  such 
a  feeling  will  find  expression  in  some  form.  Nature  will 
be  at  no  more  loss  to  make  it  known  than  she  is  to  give 
utterance  to  filial  or  maternal  love;  and  however  un- 
graceful or  even  offensive  to  ears  polite  may  be  the  mode 
selected,  the  heart  will  acknowledge  the  language  of  its 
fellow-heart.  Let  a  man,  however,  be  endued  with  this 
feeling,  and  he  can  readily — by  thoughtfulness  and  an 
observance  of  good  models  of  gentility — acquire  a  grace- 
ful mode  of  expression.  "Consider  one  another;"  that 
is,  think  of  your  fellows,  of  their  joys,  their  sorrows, 
their  hopes,  their  disappointments,  their  interests — think 
how  you  can  allay  their  griefs,  or  promote  their  happi- 
ness— think  of  your  friends,  and  of  what  you  would  do 
and  say  under  an  exchange  of  circumstances.  It  may 
be  that  the  kindest  men  may  be  deemed  boorish,  at 
times,  for  want  of  consideration.  Would  you  learn  gen- 
tility, observe  those  who  have  it. 

Be  careful  of  your  temper.  A  glad  heart  makes  a 
•weet  countenance,  and  a  smiling  face  is  like  the  sun  in 
his  beauty  Whatever  may  be  the  attraction  of  a  lady's 


108  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

intellect,  or  person,  or  acquirements,  she  is  repulsive,  if 
she  be  of  a  gloomy  disposition.  Her  best  friends  will 
be  uneasy  in  her  presence;  and  though  some  "good 
Samaritan  "  may  be  willing  to  pour  oil  upon  her  wounded 
spirit,  the  priest  and  the  Levite  will  instinctively  pass 
by  on  the  other  side.  We  have  generally  sorrows  enough 
of  our  own,  without  hearing  one  another's  woes.  Most 
of  our  troubles  are  imaginary.  Never,  therefore,  nurse 
evil  apprehensions,  and  you  will  never  be  melancholy. 
There  is  no  philosophy  like  the  philosophy  of  the  Scrip- 
tures: "Take  no  thought  for  the  morrow:  sufficient  unto 
the  day  is  the  evil  thereof."  Were  every  one  satisfied 
with  her  daily  bread  of  affliction,  there  would  be  but 
little  murmuring.  Keep  in  good  humor  with  the  future — 
it  has  never  done  you  harm — why  complain  of  it?  Bear 
kindly  the  afflicting  dispensations  of  Providence.  They 
are  all  arranged  for  your  good;  and  if  cheerfully  and 
piously  endured,  will  be  pleasing  and  profitable  exercises 
for  the  heart  or  mind,  or  both.  Providence,  moreover, 
like  the  earth,  is  in  perpetual  revolution,  and  its  darkest 
midnight  is  followed  by  the  dawn.  There  is  a  heavenly 
alchemy  which  transmutes  anguish  into  rapture.  I  would 
oppose  to  Pandora's  Box,  Paul's  paradox — "As  sorrowful, 
yet  always  rejoicing. "  David's  heart  caroled  in  its  sad- 
ness, and  the  wildest  and  sweetest  notes  of  his  harp  were 
touched  by  the  hand  that  felt  the  Father's  rod.  Why 
should  a  living  man  complain?  When  stripped  of  every 
thing,  bow  down  in  humble  and  grateful  adoration,  and 
thank  God  that  you  have  a  body  and  a  soul.  And  shall 
a  saint  repine?  Would  a  pardoned  culprit,  trembling 
beneath  the  halter,  complain  because  the  government  did 
not  send  a  coach  and  four  to  convey  him  from  the  gal- 
lows ?  and  shall  a  sinner,  raised  from  the  mouth  of  hell, 
murmur  because  angel  wings  don't  waft  him  gently  to 
the  throne  of  God? 


HINTS    TO     YOUTH.  1Q<) 

A  melancholy  mind  imparts  a  gloomy  tinge  to  ever? 
thing  around  it.  Though  nature,  to  the  clear  eye,  is  like 
to  Eden,  yet  for  the  jaundiced  one  she  has  no  charms. 
No  hills  are  green — no  dells  are  dewy — no  paths  are 
flowery — no  steeps  are  breezy  to  moping  grief.  In  Provi- 
dence there  is  a  bright  and  a  dark  side  to  every  picture. 
Endeavor  to  look  constantly  at  the  latter.  He  who 
searches  for  trouble  is  pretty  sure  to  find  it — he  who 
courts  enjoyment  sees  her  not  afar. 

Always  keep  in  good  humor  with  yourself.  We  would 
not  have  you  blind  to  your  sins,  but  know  the  worst  of 
them,  and  repent  and  believe  to  the  saving  of  the  soul 
But  be  satisfied  with  your  capacities  of  mind  and  body. 
Rest  assured  they  are  the  best  for  you — the  very  gifts 
which  Infinite  Wisdom  sees  that  you  can  best  improve. 
Be  satisfied  with  your  sphere.  Sometimes  you  will  meet 
with  disappointments — bear  them  with  grace.  For  in- 
stance, you  intend  to  be  a  speaker — well,  beware  of  mor- 
tification. You  read,  and  study,  and  write,  and  in- 
tend to  make  a  wonderful  display — you  expect  now  to 
raise  a  shout,  and  now  a  laugh,  and  now,  perchance 
you  hope  to  see  a  lady  faint;  and  anon  you  design 
to  raise  the  audience  to  their  feet;  and  you  promise 
yourself  that,  as  you  leave  the  court-room,  every  eye 
will  look  toward  you,  and  the  young  ladies  will  smile, 
and  become  envious  of  the  favorite;  and  she,  the  be- 
loved of  the  orator,  will  be  entranced,  and  murmurs 
of  applause  will  roll  in  whispers  on  your  ear,  such 
as  "great  man,"  "fine  speech,"  "true  eloquence."  Tin 
day  arrives — the  audience  assemble — all  eyes  are  fixed  — 
all  ears  are  open — handkerchiefs  rise  up  to  catch  the 
tears,  and  smelling-bottles  push  their  corks  half  open. 
The  speaker  labors — alas!  his  mind  is  rigid — his  tongue 
is  stiff — his  figures  flounder — his  arguments  tumble 
down — the  peroration  is  forgotten.  The  audience  rise  in 


110  K  1)  U  P  A  T  I  O  X  A  L     ESSAYS. 

confusion,  and  the  speaker  ?its  down  in  perspiration. 
And  now  the  ladies^  smi!<>  at  one  another,  the  favorite 
hides  her  head,  and  the  young  rivals  sneer,  and  the  mali- 
cious breezes  whisper,  "Rather  flat." 

Well,  young  man,  hold  up  your  head.  Do  not  let  the 
audience  know  that  you  have  failed,  and  they  will,  per- 
haps, soon  forget  the  failura,  or  even  change^  their  minds, 
and  reproach  their  dullness  for  not  perceiving  your  brill- 
iancy, and  their  shallowness  for  not  appreciating  your 
profundity.  Suppose  you  have  failed,  and  every  body 
knows  it.  Do  not  be  troubled — calm  yourself  with  the 
consolation  of  the  valorous  Falstaff — "  He  that  fights  and 
runs  away,  may  live  to  fight  another  day." 

Keep  in  a  good  humor  with  the  world.  Mankind  are 
not  all  rascals,  though  an  honest  man  wants  bread.  The 
world  are  not  all  fools,  though  a  genius  has  no  praise. 
Remember  that  Homer  sung  for  bread,  and  Goldsmith 
wrote  in'a  garret;  and  who  are  you?  You  may  be  great 
and  wise — we  do  not  dispute  your  claims — you  may  be  a 
Cicero  or  a  Webster — a  Mrs.  Sigourney  or  a  Hannah 
More;  but  you  must  give  the  world  a  fair  opportunity  to 
understand  your  powers.  Moreover,  you  may  make  the 
world  as  cross  or  good-natured  as  you  please.  If  you 
treat  it  roughly,  you  will  be  treated  roughly  in  return. 
Smile  at  it,  and  it  will  answer  with  a  smile.  He  that 
would  have  friends,  must  show  himself  friendly.  Do  not 
look  round  for  imperfections,  saying,  here  is  a  rascal,  and 
there  is  a  fop,  this  is  a  fool  and  that  is  a  bankrupt.  It 
may  all  be  true;  but  why  say  so?  Cui  bonof  Look 
round  for  excellences.  If  you  contend  with  the  world 
you  will  find  fearful  odds  against  you  Speak  evil  of  no 
man.  When  others  speak  evil  of  a  man,  do  you  speak 
good.  No  man  so  perfect  as  not  to  have  some  defects — 
none  so  frail  as  not  to  have  some  fine  quality. 

And  now  my  pen  addresses  itself  particularly  to  the 


II  I  X  T  S     T  O     Y  O  U  T  H  .  Ill 

ycrang  gentlemen.  Be  in  the  good  graces  of  the  ladies. 
You  have  learned  already  that  a  mother's  love,  though 
cheap,  is  priceless — that  a  sister's  affection  is  an  impene 
trable  shield.  I  pity  the  youth  who  does  not  know 
the  value  of  woman's  influence.  He  can  not  succeed 
Whether  he  be  carpenter  or  mason,  sovereign  or  shoe- 
black, priest  or  politician,  he  is  a  ruined  man  without  the 
favor  of  the  ladies.  No  pursuit  so  low,  none  so  high,  as 
to  be  beyond  woman's  reach.  Needles  and  bayonets 
move  at  her  command — turkeys  and  tyrants  roast  on  her 
spit — coursers  and  candidates  run  at  her  will,  and  crowds 
and  cradles  hush  at  her  lullaby.  Her  smile  is  prosper- 
ity— her  indignation  brings  trouble.  Great  as  is  her  in- 
fluence, it  is  no  more  than  she  deserves.  The  purest  feel- 
ings of  the  heart  receive  their  earliest  and  noblest  devel- 
opments in  her  character.  The  mother's  affection,  the 
wife's  devotion,  the  sister's  love,  who  shall  paint?  In 
scenes  of  poverty  and  suffering  she  is  an  angel  of  mercy. 
At  the  altar  of  God  her  prayers  are  the  warmest  incense, 
her  songs  the  sweetest  praise. 

But  how  shall  woman's  influence  be  secured  ?  The 
weak  side  of  a  mother's  heart  is  her  maternal  love.  You 
may  easily  procure  a  welcome  to  the  family  if 'you  treat 
the  children  with  kindness  and  attention.  Notice  the 
babe — its  blue  eye — its  rosy  check — calm  its  griefs,  and 
enter  into  its  tiny  joys.  And  who  would  not?  Are  you 
the  man,  reader?  Then  there  is  no  love  nor  music  in 
your  soul,  and  you  do  not  deserve  favor.  What  creature 
no  beautiful  as  the  infant  man?  Our  Savior  took  little 
children  in  his  arms  and  blessed  them. 

Make  the  best  of  your  country  and  location.  The  for- 
eigner generally  brings  down  a  world  of  prejudices  upon 
himself  by  contrasting  his  native  with  his  adopted  coun- 
try. Comparing  Washington  with  London,  the  White 
House  with  Windsor  Castle,  Trinity  with  St.  Paul's,  he 


112  K  I>  tl  r  A  TION  AL      ESSAYS. 

disgusts  all  around  him.  Give  him  an  apple,  and  he 
must  speak  of  the  superior  orchards  of  Great  Britain,  or 
a  peach,  and  he  will  boast  of  the  size  and  flavor  of  those 
across  the  water.  Present  him  a  basket  of  cherries,  and 
he  praises  the  large,  luscious  English  garden  cherry,  that 
grows  by  the  wall.  He  meets  with  nothing  to  please 
him — as  though  we  had  no  earth  or  heaven,  water  or  at- 
mosphtre,  thunder  or  lightning,  worth  a  farthing.  Were 
he  to  turn  his  attention  and  conversation  upon  our  advant- 
ages, upon  the  superiority  of  our  forests  and  mountains, 
our  seas  and  rivers,  our  soil  and  climate,  he  would  receive 
a  hearty  welcome,  and  be  a  popular  man. 

We  have  known  a  talented  and  pious  clergyman  to  lose 
all  influence  with  his  people  by  harping  on  the  evils  and 
disadvantages  of  his  location,  while  we  have  seen  his  in- 
ferior become  a  universal  favorite  by  pointing  out  the 
beauties  and  excellences  of  the  surrounding  hills. 

Beware  of  bad  habits. 

"  Choose  that  which  is  most  fit,"  said  Pythagoras, 
"and  custom  will  make  it  most  convenient."  There  are 
many  bad  habits  prevalent  in  our  day  of  which  we  would 
have  you  beware.  Gentlemen  have  a  fashion  of  sitting 
which  we  know  must  give  ladies  much  uneasiness,  since 
it  wears  holes  both  in  the  carpet  and  the  wall,  and  often 
divorces  the  seats  of  chairs  from  their  backs.  A  worthy 
and  witty  friend  propelled  us  to  the  borders  of  convul- 
sions once,  at  his  hospitable  table,  when  he  described  the 
predicament,  on  a  particular  occasion,  of  a  certain  indi- 
vidual, who,  having  perhaps  read  in  Thomas  Aquinas, 
that  the  human  intelligence  rocked  itself  on  the  center 
of  two  horizons,  was  in  the  habit  of  reminding  himaelf 
of  that  sublime  truth,  by  poising  his  body  upon  his  chair. 
On  a  visit  to  President  Jefferson,  being  somewhat  embar- 
rassed, and  not  paying  due  respect  to  his  an tero- posterior 
motions,  he  was  very  painfully  assured  of  the  important 


HINTS    TO     YOUTH.  113 

princip.e  that  bodies  corr3sponding  solely  to  time  and 
space,  have  both  a  hie  and  a  nunc,  so  that  if  by  gravita- 
tion or  any  other  cause  they  are  removed  from  one  place 
they  must  go  to  another.  We  can  think  of  no  excuse  for 
the  habit  to  which  we  refer,  unless  the  philosophy  be 
correct  which  teaches  that  to  attain  to  true  wisdojx  a  man 
must  imitate  the  motion  of  the  stars,  so  as  to  produce  a 
giddiness  which  frees  the  mind  from  "sensible  notions," 
and  raises  it  to  the  region  of  illumination.  In  spite  of 
Tophail,  however,  the  ladies  can  cure  this  habit  at  once 
by  having  castors  put  under  their  chairs. 

There  is  a  plant  which  was  hailed,  at  its  introduction 
into  the  world,  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  as 
one  of  the  wonders  of  America,  and  which,  through  a 
strange  coincidence,  was  first  conveyed  into  the  eternal 
city  by  a  descendant  of  that  illustrious  man  who  first 
brought  to  Rome  the  wood  of  the  true  (?)  cross.  This 
plant  appears  to  have  a  peculiar  charm  for  three  animals : 
a  certain  worm,  a  particular  goat,  and  a  creature  in  the 
image  of  God.  It  is  used  in  various  forms:  some  grind 
it  to  powder,  and  offer  it  to  themselves  as  the  heathen 
present  incense  to  their  idols — others  curl  it  into  little 
stems  which  they  burn,  as  the  converted  pagan  does  his 
god;  while  a  third  class  roll  it,  like  the  sinner  does  his 
sins,  as  a  sweet  morsel  ander  the  tongue.  We  protest,  ex 
cathedra,  against  its  use  in  any  form. 

The  practice  of  using  snuff — not  uncommon  among  the 
fair — injures  the  voice.  We  have  known  several  distin- 
guished speakers  deprived — in  no  small  degree — of  their 
charm  by  this  habit.  Nor  is  this  the  worst.  Why  did 
Pope  Urban  VIII  publish  a  decree  of  excommunication 
against  all  who  took  snuff  in  the  Church?  Though  we 
grant  that  this  bull  was  rather  severe,  we  believe,  never- 
theless, that  his  Holiness  was  a  very  discerning  man. 

The  practice  of  smoking  causes  a  waste  of  time  and 
8 


114  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

money,  ana  subjects  us  to  great  inconvenience.  A  man 
will  sometimes  find  company,  even  at  his  own  fireside,  to 
whom  the  ashes  and  fumes  of  tobacco  are  far  from  agree 
able.  I  speak  not  now  of  such  as  are  peculiarly  suscepti- 
ble, and  liable  to  "die  of  a  rose  in  aromatic  pain."  Very 
few  who  have  not  been  accustomed  to  breathe  such  in- 
cense as  that  of  the  pipe,  can  endure  it  long  in  a  close 
room  without  discomfort.  And  what  will  you  do,  gentle 
reader,  if  you  become  the  room-mate — at  college  or  else- 
where— of  one  whose  olfactories  and  lungs  are  delicate, 
or  when  shut  up  in  a  stage-coach  or  a  cabin  on  a  cold 
day,  with  nervous  companions,  to  whom  you  are  bound  to 
show  respect?  Should  you  carry  this  habit  into  the  itin- 
erant ministry,  how  often  will  it  give  you  uneasiness! 
You  will  not,  surely,  defile  the  prophets'  chamber,  or  the 
holy  altar. 

This  practice  offends  against  what  has  been  called — 
next  thing  to  godliness.  We  would  not  declaim  against 
it  as  did  King  James  I,  who  said  it  was  "a  custom  loath- 
some to  the  eye,  hateful  to  the  nose,  harmful  to  the  brain, 
dangerous  to  the  lungs,  and  in  the  black  stinking  fumes 
thereof  nearest  resembling  the  horrible  Stygian  smoke 
of  the  pit  that  is  bottomless;"  but  we  may  surely  be  al- 
lowed to  say  that  it  is  not  charming  to  the  senses.  We 
have  seen  ladies  smoking — young  ones,  too.  0,  tell  it 
not  in  Christendom;  publish  it  not  in  the  streets  of  Cin- 
cinnati !  It  was  customary  among  the  ancients  for  a  lass 
to  eat  a  quince  on  her  bridal  day,  that  her  breath  might 
be  fragrant  at  the  altar,  and  that  the  odor  of  her  lips 
might  suggest  mellifluous  discourse,  and  spiritual  sweet- 
ness. What  bridegroom  would  not  prefer  the  odor  of  the 
quince  and  its  purifying  associations,  to  the  fumes  of  the 
"herb  of  immortal  fame,"  and  dreams  of  bar-rooms  and 
blackguards? 

We  know  it  is  unpopular  to  write  against   a  favorite 


HINTS    TO     YOUTH.  115 

custom;  but  then  we  do  not,  as  did  the  legislature  of 
Russia  in  1634,  forbid  your  smoking,  under  pain  of 
having  your  noses  cut  off,  nor  do  we  propose  to  issue  a 
decree,  as  did  Amurath  IV,  pronouncing  it  a  capital  of- 
fense. We  write  so  gently  that  you  can  not  be  offended; 
indeed,  when  we  see  a  man  in  the  winter  of  life  sitting 
by  a  lone  fire,  and  musing  over  the  flight  of  happy  hours, 
we  would  not  diminish  the  consolation  which  he  draws, 
in  his  solitude,  from  his  long  white  pipe  tipped  with  red 
pealing  wax;  nor  would  we  deprive  the  rude  Indian  of  his 
emblem  of  peace,  nor  the  slave  of  his  socializer,  nor  the 
wandering  Arab,  or  the  hardy  Esquimaux,  of  a  luxury 
which  sweetens  his  bitter  hours;  but  we  advise  the 
young,  and  such  especially  as  dwell  within  the  precincts 
of  civilized  life,  to  seek  for  solace  of  a  different  kind. 

We  have  not  spoken  of  the  other  form  of  using  tobac- 
co; but  as  that  is  so  disgusting,  we  will  presume  none  of 
our  readers  are  addicted  to  it;  nor  need  we  tell  the  story 
of  Mrs.  S.,  who  spread  out  her  beautiful  white  satin 
apron  before  her  guests,  as  they  were  defiling  her  new 
Brussels  carpet,  saying,  "Use  this,  gentlemen;  I  can 
wash  this,  but  not  my  carpet."  Allow  us,  in  conclusion, 
to  say  that  tobacco,  in  any  form,  is  ordinarily  injurious  to 
health.  We  do  not,  however,  wish  to  deprive  the  steam 
doctors  of  it,  nor  speak  disparagingly  of  its  merits;  it  is 
a  good  emetic. 

We  should  not  have  touched  upon  this  plant,  but  for 
the  fear  that  its  popularity  is  increasing,  and  that  it  has 
a  great  tendency  to  produce  intemperance  by  causing  a 
dryness  of  the  fauces,  for  which  a  remedy  is  too  often 
sought  in  the  glass. 

Avoid  the  habit  of  speaking  carelessly,  using  ungram- 
matical  expressions,  low  phrases,  unauthorized  words, 
provincialisms,  etc.  This,  you  will  say,  is  a  very  small 
matter;  but  if  a  neglect  of  such  counsel  should  preclude 


116  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

your  admission  into  more  refined  circles  of  society,  it  will 
prove  to  you  a  matter  of  some  consequence.  Wealth, 
station,  influential  connections,  may  do  much  toward  se- 
curing respect;  but  vulgarity  can  counteract  them  all. 
Wit  and  intelligence,  enchanting  as  they  are,  can  not 
atone  for  those  coarse  expressions  which  denote  ill-breed- 
ing and  low  conceptions.  Many  amiable  ladies,  whose 
connections  are  wealthy,  of  high  official  standing,  and 
great  political  influence,  wonder  why  it  is  they  are  not 
admitted  to  the  circles  to  which  they  aspire.  Not  a  few 
of  this  class  could  solve  the  perplexing  problem  which 
imbitters  their  existence,  if  they  would  pause  over  the 
hint  just  given.  Pedantry  and  affectation  are  as  much 
to  be  avoided  as  vulgarity.  A  pretended  delicacy  of  ex- 
pression is  often  a  sign  of  real  indelicacy  of  thought. 
Words  are  often  corrupted  by  the  channel  through  which 
they  pass.  To  the  pure  all  things  are  pure:  " Honi  soil 
qui  mal  y  pense."  We  question  the  refinement  which 
calls  Hog  Island  Swine  Island,  and  dog  the  "  domestic 
quadruped  which  guards  the  habitation."  The  language 
of  Paris  is  that  of  attenuated  refinement;  yet  it  is  the 
vehicle  of  the  grossest  moral  pollution.  Above  all,  shun 
every  appearance  of  profanity.  It  is  a  sure  sign  of  very 
bad  breeding  or  a  very  bad  heart.  Was  it  not  the  prince 
of  modern  philosophers  who  took  off  his  hat  when  he 
passed  a  church  ?  Is  it  not  said  of  Boyle  that  when  he 
pronounced  the  name  of  Deity  he  uncovered  his  head  ? 
How  often  is  the  title  of  Jehovah — that  name  which 
rends  mountains — the  tower  of  the  persecuted  Chris 
tian — the  hope  of  the  dying  man — the  name  at  which 
heaven  bows,  earth  shakes,  hell  trembles — used  with  as 
little  regard  as  that  of  a  slave ! 

Violate  not  the  first  commandment:  better  kiss  the 
cannon's  mouth.  How  deep  the  depravity  that  can  trifle 
with  the  name  of  the  Creator!  For  other  sins  an  excuse 


HINTS    TO     YOUTH.  117 

may  be  pleaded ;  for  there  is  scarce  any  whicn  does  not 
confer  or  promise  pleasure  for  a  season.  This  sin  can 
point  to  no  part  of  our  nature,  and  say  to  the  inquiring 
Judge,  "The  passion  which  thou  gavest  me  did  tempt 
me,  and  I  did  eat."  It  is  the  development  of  sheer  de- 
pravity, unless  the  transgressor  can  plead  that  he  has 
come  up  from  the  very  dregs  of  society,  where  there  is 
no  other  dialect  but  that  of  hell.  When  at  Washington 
City,  I  heard  it  said  of  one  high  in  office,  "He  swears 
even  in  the  presence  of  ladies."  I  trembled  and  I 
hoped.  I  saw  that  the  nation  was  defying  Heaven  :  I 
saw,  also,  that  religion  was  not  yet  driven  from  her 
stronghold — woman's  heart.  To  the  honor  of  woman, 
let  it  be  said,  that  to  swear  in  her  presence  is  the  climax 
of  impoliteness. 

Be  careful  of  your  character.  No  youth  can  succeed 
in  the  world  without  a  good  reputation.  A  man  may 
have  genius,  and  fancy,  and  wit — profound  learning — a 
charming  person — a  sparkling  conversation;  and  yet, 
devoid  of  integrity,  who  will  give  him  employment,  or 
bid  him  welcome?  We  may  admire  him;  but  only  as 
we  do  a  beautiful  and  dangerous  beast.  The  shepherd 
may  smile  at  the  tiger  bounding  through  the  forest,  or 
reposing  in  his  den;  but  he  would  shudder  to  see  him 
among  the  lambs  of  his  flock.  To  obtain  good  character 
we  must  have  good  morals.  I  need  not  say  there  is  no 
morality  like  that  of  the  Scriptures.  Keep  the  ten  com- 
mandments— they  are  of  infinitely  more  value  than  the 
morals  of  Seneca,  the  precepts  of  Socrates,  or  the  Lives 
of  Plutarch.  They  are  radiant  with  "heavenly  light,  and 
worthy  of  God.  He  who  observes  them  occupies  an 
elevated  post  in  the  moral  world.  He  enjoys  the  appio- 
bation  of  his  reason,  his  conscience,  and  his  heart — he 
commends  himself  to  sinner  no  less  than  saint — he  ia 
blessed  of  God.  Earth  rejoices  before  him,  and  joy 


]13  EDUCATIONAL      ESSAYS. 

unbidden  (lances  in  his  heart.  I  know  there  appears  to 
be  no  just  hand  in  this  life  to  distribute  good  and  evil 
according  to  desert ;  yet  the  observation  of  all  men  will 
justify  the  remark,  that  integrity  is  indispensable  to  per- 
manent prosperity.  Though  the  immoral  man  may  suc- 
ceed for  a  time,  he  shall  not  prosper  long.  Reason  will 
weaken  him  with  her  reproaches,  conscience  alarm  him 
with  her  terrors,  and  the  divine  curse  overtake  his  foot- 
steps. 

Would  you  understand  the  commandments,  however, 
bring  them  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  In  the  light 
of  this  commentary,  we  see  their  beauty  and  divinity. 
They  are  not  confined  to  the  overt  act;  they  require  a 
sinless  motive.  Would  you  keep  the  commandments  per- 
fectly, you  must  not  have  a  heart  from  which  proceed 
"evil  thoughts,  murders,  adulteries,"  etc.  I  know  there 
is  an  outside  morality,  which  makes  a  man  as  a  whited 
sepulcher;  but  trust  it  not;  the  stone  may  be  rolled 
away,  and  the  rottenness  laid  open  to  the  light  of  heaven. 
Would  you  have  perfect,  and  pure,  and  vital  morality,  you 
must  have  a  purified  heart.  Make  the  fountain  pure,  and 
the  stream  will  be  pure.  But  where  shall  the  heart  be 
washed  of  its  stains?  In  the  fountain  of  a  Savior's  blood. 
I  have  no  faith  in  any  morality  that  has  not  found  out 
"Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified." 

These  general  observations  are  sufficient  for  our  pur- 
pose; but  I  can  not  refrain  from  some  specific  directions. 
Be  observant  of  truth.  Scarce  any  man  falls  into  vice 
and  crime  who  is  willing,  at  all  hours,  to  tell  the  truth, 
the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth.  Falsehood 
is  the  gate  of  the  road  to  ruin.  If  once  a  young  man 
learns  to  lie,  he  is  ready  for  almost  any  sin;  because  he 
fancies  he  has  found  a  method  of  concealment.  Who 
steals,  who  counterfeits,  before  he  has  learned  to  falsify? 
Hence,  Satan  is  called  the  father  of  lies.  "All  liars  are 


HINTS     TO     YOUTH.  119 

to  have  their  portion  in  the  lake  that  burneth  with  brim- 
stone." An  intuitive  perception  of  the  guilt  of  falsehood 
makes  the  appellation  "liar"  exceedingly  offensive.  Make 
no  distinction  between  white  and  black  lies.  Beware  of 
allowing  gesticulation,  or  manner,  or  countenance,  to 
falsify.  Remember  that  you  may  lie  without  speaking, 
that  you  may  lie  by  exaggerating,  or  diminishing  the 
truth;  that  you  may  lie  even  with  the  truth,  by  giving  it 
a  wrong  arrangement. 

Be  cautious  how  you  make  promises;  make  none  which 
you  do  not  intend  to  fulfill.  I  know  that  such  directions 
are  not  suited  to  our  times  of  reckless  trading  and  wild 
speculation.  I  am  aware,  too,  that  such  care  and  caution 
may  be  incompatible  with  rapid  accumulation;  but  I 
know,  also,  that  the  steps  of  one  who  pursues  such  a 
course,  though  slow,  are  sure;  and  when  he  gains  the 
summit,  he  does  not  find  it  crumble  beneath  him.  How 
immense  the  advantages  of  a  man  who,  having  acquired  a 
reputation  for  punctuality,  passes  his  promises  as  silver! 
How  easy  for  him  to  command  capital  or  secure  patron- 
age!  Many  are  not  aware  that  the  habit  of  falsifying 
steals  on  insidiously.  We  first  lie  for  amusement,  then 
for  convenience,  next  to  conceal  guilt,  or  gratify  malice, 
till,  finally,  we  can  bear  false  witness  against  our  neigh- 
bor, without  the  least  compunction.  Beware,  then,  of 
the  smallest  beginnings  of  falsehood.  Be  guarded  in 
speaking  of  motives  or  matters  of  opinion,  remembering 
that  he  who  asserts  any  thing  as  true,  assumes  the  respon- 
sibility of  ascertaining  it  to  be  so. 

Consider  the  dangerous  consequences  of  falsehood. 
The  fortune  and  character  which  had  been  acquired  by 
a  long  life  of  usefulness,  has  often  been  blasted  by  a  single 
falsehood.  A  soul  has  not  unfrequently  been  hurled  to 
ruin  by  one  lie.  Witness  Ananias  and  Sapphira.  Tell 
me  not  that  lying  is  essential  in  your  profession  or  trade. 


120  EDUCATIONAL      KKSAYS. 

It  is  a  libel  on  divine  Providence.  There  is  no  lawful 
pursuit  in  which  truth  is  not  far  more  advantageous  than 
falsehood.  The  obligations  to  speak  the  truth,  and  the 
blessings  which  flow  from  it,  do  not  depend  upon  the  pur- 
suits of  the  speaker,  or  the  rights  of  the  hearer,  but  our 
relations  to  God.  Truth  is  lovely  in  herself.  Learn  to 
venerate  her  as  the  leader  of  virtue,  the  mother  of  science, 
and  the  attribute  of  God. 

With  a  view  to  facilitate  an  observance  of  truth,  I  sub- 
join a  few  cautions.  Be  slow  in  making  promises.  As 
much  as  lieth  in  you,  owe  no  man  any  thing  but  love.  Be 
wary  how  you  borrow  or  lend.  The  practice  of  promiscu- 
ous borrowing  is  a  great  fountain  of  falsehood  and  misfor- 
tune. I  will  not  say  that  we  ought  never  to  lend.  The 
great  father  of  English  poetry  says,  without  qualification, 
"Neither  a  lender  nor  borrower  be;"  and,  perhaps,  if  a 
man  were  to  consider  his  own  interest  only,  this  would 
be  an  unexceptionable  precept;  for,  as  the  great  dramatist 
says,  "  Use  doth  oft  destroy  both  itself  and  friend." 

But  we  are  not  to  look  solely  to  our  own  interest;  and 
higher  authority  than  Shakspeare  informs  us  that  it  is  our 
duty  to  lend  to  the  poor.  We  are  rarely,  however,  under 
obligation  to  borrow;  suffer  rather  than  do  so.  Better  go 
barefoot  and  bleeding  over  the  ground  than  run  the  risk 
of  losing  a  friend,  blunting  conscience,  and  incurring 
self-degradation,  by  borrowing  means  to  buy  shoes.  Don't 
tell  me  about  the  necessity  of  borrowing.  Few  men  not 
possessed  of  considerable  resources  can  do  so  without 
plunging  into  a  whirlpool  of  engagements  from  which 
it  is  difficult  to  get  out  with  a  clear  character  and  con- 
science. 

Be  decided,  not  only  in  your  opinions,  but  your  course 
of  action.  Having  chosen  your  path  from  a  conviction 
of  its  rectitude,  suffer  nothing  to  divert  you.  Rather 
etarve,  or  bleed,  or  burn,  than  act  contrary  to  the  convic- 


HINTS    TO    YOUTH.  121 

tiond  of  your  judgment.  The  desire  to  please  is  an 
amiable  trait  in  the  character  of  youth,  and  is  often  con- 
founded with  humility  and  modesty;  but  it  is  different 
from  either,  and  has  been  the  temporal  and  eternal  ruin 
of  thousands. 

Firmness  is  the  helm  of  the  mind.  It  can  direct  a 
feeble  intellect  across  a  stormy  ocean.  Without  it,  no 
force  of  thought,  no  depth  of  feeling,  no  resources  of 
.earning,  no  power  of  eloquence,  no  clearness  of  mental 
vision,  is  safe  upon  the  voyage  of  life.  Splendid  abilities 
deprived  of  its  guidance,  are  destined  to  be  but  a  splendid 
wreck.  It  is  an  indispensable  element  in  the  character 
of  the  good  man.  To  be  virtuous  in  the  midst  of  wicked- 
ness, is  to  be  singular.  He  who  follows  the  multitude  in 
this  world  must  do  evil.  The  man  who  passes  through 
the  wide  gate,  and  down  the  broad  way,  goes  to  destruc- 
tion. What  would  Daniel  have  been  without  firmness? 
One  of  the  precepts  of  the  Gospel  is,  "  Be  ye  steadfast, 
immovable."  The  rock  in  the  midst  of  -the  sea,  which, 
in  the  stormiest  as  well  as  the  calmest  hour,  lifts  its  ven- 
erable head  above  the  billows,  is  the  best  emblem  of  the 
Christian. 

Firmness  is  not  eccentricity.  The  former  is  founded 
in  regard  for  one's  own  opinions;  the  latter  in  contempt 
for  those  of  others.  Firmness  is  singular  in  matters  of 
importance;  eccentricity  is  singular  at  all  times.  Who 
had  more  firmness  than  Paul;  and  yet  who,  in  trivial 
matters,  was  more  accommodating  ?  Though  he  every- 
where held  up  the  cross,  yet,  on  Mars'  hill,  he  paid 
respect  to  philosophy  ;  and,  in  Jerusalem,  he  honored 
Moses.  In  condescension  to  the  Greek,  he  refrained  from 
meat,  and,  to  please  the  Jew,  he  circumcised  Timothy. 
Steadily  keeping  salvation  in  view,  he  was  "all  things  to 
all  men." 

Firmness    is   not  obstinacy.     The   former  rest.-*   upon 


122  KDU  r  A  T  10  \  A  L     KSSAVS. 

leason,  the  latter  upon  will.  The  former  implies  intelli- 
gence, the  other  stupidity.  The  one  is  a  high  excellency, 
the  other  a  great  defect.  The  one  is  illustrated  in  Luther 
standing  before  the  Diet  of  Worms,  the  other  in  the  niule 
standing  under  the  lash  of  liis  master. 

Be  careful  jn  relation  to  your  company.  Some  of  you 
may  be  about  to  leave  the  circle  of  your  family,  and  the 
companions  and  guardians  of  your  youth;  but,  as  man 
was  formed  for  society,  you  will  soon  find  other  associates. 
Beware:  extend  your  confidence  slowly;  and,  while  you 
treat  all  with  respect,  be  careful  how  you  admit  any  to 
the  endearing  relation  of  friend.  If  you  look  over  the 
history  of  the  past,  or  the  scenes  of  the  present,  you  will 
see  two  classes  of  men  :  the  one  advancing  to  honor  and 
happiness,  the  other  plunging  into  infamy  and  ruin.  And 
what  accounts  for  the  difference  ?  The  respective  char- 
acter of  their  early  companions.  "Be  not  deceived — evil 
communications  corrupt  good  manners."  Avoid  infidel 
associates.  You  have  been  born  of  pious  parents,  and 
reared  under  holy  influences.  The  very  gambols  of  your 
boyhood  have  been  among  the  green  pastures,  and  beside 
the  still  waters  of  the  Shepherd  of  souls.  You  have  seen, 
upon  your  native  mountains,  the  beautiful  feet  of  Him 
"that  bringeth  good  tidings — that  publisheth  peace." 
You  have  heard,  with  infant  ears,  "the  joyful  sound" 
that  makes  the  people  blessed.  You  have  breathed  a 
moral  atmosphere,  purified  with  the  dews  of  the  Gospel. 
You  have  gone  up  to  the  temple  to  worship,  and,  with 
infant  voices,  have  caroled  Jehovah's  praise.  Perhaps, 
reader,  you  are  a  Peter  called  from  his  net  to  be  a  fisher 
of  men;  and  by  your  side  is  a  David,  invited  from  the 
mountains  of  Bethlehem  to  the  throne  of  Israel ;  and  here 
is  one  on  whom,  while  looking  into  heaven,  the  mantle  of 
an  Elijah  hath  fallen ;  and  there  is  the  son  of  some 
Hannah,  a  child  of  vows  and  tears,  dedicated  to  God  in 


HINTS    TO     YOUTH.  123 

his  temple,  by  her  whose  trembling  heart  said,  "So  long 
an  he  liveth  he  shall  be  lent  to  the  Lord."  Here  is  that 
Samuel  who,  when  the  word  of  the  Lord  was  precious,  as 
ho  lay  by  the  ark  of  God,  said,  "  Speak,  Lord,  for  thy 
servant  heareth." 

But  you  are  about  to  leave  the  paths  of  youth  and  go 
down  into  the  wilderness.  Beware!  I  am  not  afraid  that 
you  will  seek  companions  in  the  bar-rooms,  and  in  the 
corners  of  the  streets.  You  shudder  at  the  blasphemies 
of  those  cruel  scorners  who  can  hurl  down,  with  malig- 
nant pleasure,  the  poor  souls  whom  they  allure  to  the  dark 
mountains  of  unbelief,  and  look  with  mad  indifference 
upon  the  eternal  ruin  of  the  victims  whom  they  betray  to 
the  hands  of  Satan.  You  will  not  listen,  while  the  Bible, 
and  the  blood  which  speaketh  mercy,  and  the  temple, 
which  lifts  its  vail  from  the  counsels  of  the  eternal  Mind, 
are  reviled.  But  you  should  remember  that  there  is  a 
refined  infidelity.  You  will  meet  with  young  men  of 
engaging  manners,  cultivated  minds,  and  elegant  attain- 
ments, whose  thoughts  and  feelings  are  tinctured  with 
skepticism.  These  men  know  how  to  insnare  you.  Prais- 
ing the  poetry  of  Isaiah,  the  morality  of  the  Gospel,  and 
the  character  of  Jesus,  they  will  treat  your  religion  with 
respect,  and  go  to  the  house  of  God  in  your  company. 
But,  at  the  same  time,  they  will  give  you  to  understand 
that  they  see  excellences  in  the  Koran  and  the  Talmud, 
as  well  as  the  Bible;  that  they  venerate  the  son  of  So- 
phroniscus  as  well  as  the  Son  of  Mary,  and  that  they 
have  a  similar  regard  for  the  Arabian  kneeling  at  the 
tomb  of  the  prophet,  or  the  Brahmin  prostrate  at  the  feet 
of  his  idol,  that  they  entertain  for  you  at  the  supper  of 
the  Lord.  Descanting  upon  the  prejudices  of  early  edu- 
cation, and  the  power  of  custom,  and  sneering  at  enthusi- 
asm and  superstition  in  all  their  forms,  they  will  ingen- 
iously turn  the  contempt  they  arouse  against  these,  her 


124  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

accidental  concomitants,  upon  the  holy  religion  which 
they  deform.  While  they  raise  a  cloud  before  your  eyes, 
which  hides  God  from  your  view,  they  will  steal  into  your 
doubting  heart,  robbing  it  of  all  faith  in  God's  word,  all 
hope  in  his  mercy,  all  traces  of  his  love;  and  leaving  you 
in  a  world  of  wickedness  and  misery,  without  any  support 
for  your  virtue,  any  consolation  for  your  woe,  or  any  hope 
in  a  better  world  !  Alas !  what  may  we  expect  will  be 
your  career?  and  in  what  manner  will  it  close?  Who 
shall  help  you  on  your  dying  pillow,  when  the  terrors  of 
the  grave  rise,  and  the  curtains  of  despair  fall,  and  the 
furies  of  remorse  wake  up,  and  hell  opens  its  mouth  for 
the  lost  soul  ?  0,  Jesus,  may  we  never  leave  thy  cross  ! 
Shun  the  most  splendid  society  if  it  be  of  infidel  tend- 
ency. No  accomplishment  so  elegant,  no  learning  so 
profound,  no  honor  so  resplendent,  as  to  compensate  the 
child  of  God  for  the  least  seed  of  doubt  that  skepticism 
can  plant  in  his  heart. 

Avoid  the  company  of  the  gay  or  dissolute.  Far  be  it 
from  me  to  recommend  austerity  or  gloom.  There  is 
nothing  in  my  philosophy  or  my  feelings  which  would  rob 
youth  of  one  of  its  rational  pleasures.  There  is  useful 
mirth  as  well  as  salutary  woe.  And  it  becomes  us  all  to 
sit  down  to  life's  feast  with  pleasure,  and  rise  from  it 
with  gratitude  But  let  your  pleasures  be  rational,  not 
sensual — the  pleasures  of  man,  not  those  of  the  brute.  Let 
the  feast  be  the  feast  of  reason,  and  the  wine  the  flow  of 
soul.  Immortal  mind  should  need  no  material  stimulant 
\s  iron  sharpeneth  iron,  so  the  face  of  man  his  friend. 

While  mind  struggles  with  mind,  and  heart  bounds  to 
heart — while  thought  leaps  out  to  thought,  and  joy  dances 
to  joy — while  mutual  sympathy  hightens  mutual  rapture — 
there  are  hights  and  depths  of  pleasure  never  known 
to  the  cockpit,  the  race-course,  or  the  ball-room. 

Although  the  habits  of  the  age  are  temperate,  yet  there 


HINTS    TO     YOUTH.  125 

ar*  a  tbousana  avenues  to  the  drunkard's  grare.  On  the 
steamboat  and  on  the  street,  in  the  city  and  in  the  field, 
there  are  those  who  "  lie  in  wait  to  destroy."  Hundreds 
are  ready  to  lead  you  to  the  card-table,  and  from  the  card- 
table  to  the  wine-cup,  and  thence  to  the  scenes  of  alluring 
vice,  where  pleasure  decj&s  her  bowers,  and  spreads  her 
bed  of  poppies,  and,  in  the  words  of  the  poet,  "weaves 
the  winding-sheet  of  souls,  and  lays  them  in  the  urn  of 
everlasting  death." 

Be  careful  of  your  mind.  Inform  it.  There  is  as 
clear  evidence  that  the  mind  was  made  to  learn  as  that 
the  feet  were  made  to  walk.  All  nature  is  hung  with 
leaves  of  instruction,  and  a  flood  of  light  spreads  over 
them  to  make  their  lessons  luminous.  The  Bible  is  a 
book  from  heaven,  ample  in  its  evidence,  Gublime  in  its 
revelations,  clear  and  copious  in  its  instructions,  pure  in 
its  precepts,  rich  and  precious  in  its  promises.  Above 
all,  there  is  a  divine  light  which  beams  upon  the  humble 
soul.  These  three  sources  of  knowledge  are  exhaustless 
and  pure.  Commune  much,  then,  with  nature,  with  rev- 
elation, and  with  God.  Beware  of  otl  er  sources  of  knowl- 
edge. We  fear  both  men  and  books  Granted,  that  holy 
men  are  good  counselors,  religious  books  helps  to  wis- 
dom. Try  both  by  the  divine  on  cles.  If  they  speak 
not  according  to  this,  there  is  no  1  ght  in  them.  Books 
of  history,  of  geography,  and  of  true  science,  are  but 
transcripts  of  Providence  and  nature.  Of  these  we  need 
not  be  fearful;  but  works  of  human  genius  are  to  be  sus- 
pected. The  memory  is  an  immortal  canvas,  and  the 
forms  traced  upon  it  will  probably  be  enduring  as  God. 
Beware  whose  brush  you  suffer  to  approach  it.  Thought 
may  be  buried,  but  the  hour  cometh  when  it  shall  have  a 
resurrection,  and  be  hung  up  in  eternal  light  to  the  gaze 
of  men  and  angels.  Moreover,  there  is  a  Mind  so  pure 
that  the  heavens  are  not  clean  in  his  sight — so  transcend- 


126  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

ent  thai  he  charges  his  angels  with  folly;  and  that  mind 
searcheth  hourly  the  heart.  Let  us  beware  whose  ink- 
horn  we  let  down  into  the  bosom. 

Though  an  impure  thought  may  give  a  moment's 
amusement,  it  may  afterward  cost  unspeakable  anguish. 
Whc  shall  tell  the  torment  of  that  spirit,  when,  in  the 
hour  of  its  painful  trial,  the  infidel  doubt  which  it  re- 
ceived in  the  days  of  its  wickedness,  rises  like  a  lost  spirit 
from  the  pit,  to  haunt  it  through  the  darkness?  Novelist, 
there  cometh  an  hour  when  death  shall  seize.  Then 
every  stanza  of  Zion,  and  every  verse  of  the  Bible,  will 
be  an  angel  to  thy  soul.  But,  alas!  the  impure  thoughts 
of  Shakspeare,  and  Byron,  and  Butler,  may  be  commis- 
sioned, like  horrid  specters,  to  drive  you  away  from 
hopes  of  mercy,  and  promises  of  God,  into  the  very  ter- 
rors of  hell.  In  that  sad  moment  of  despair,  what  would 
you  give  for  a  rod  to  drive  away  the  ghosts  of  impurity 
and  sin  that  hover  round  thy  dying  pillow? 

Consider.  Let  all  you  learn  be  subjected  to  examin- 
ation, fair  and  full.  Read,  then  meditate,  understand, 
appropriate.  Keep  a  sentinel  at  the  door  of  the  mind; 
charged  to  admit  no  stranger  who  does  not  give  the  coun- 
tersign. When  any  important  fact  conies  into  your 
presence,  survey  it  carefully:  inquire  into  its  nature,  its 
origin,  its  uses,  and  how  to  make  it  bear  upon  your  ob- 
ject. He  who  perpetually  reads,  but  never  inquires,  ie 
like  a  stranger  in  the  midst  of  a  mob — he  knows  not 
friend  from  foe,  nor  which  way  to  flee  to  escape  danger. 

In  the  economy  of  God,  high  achievement  issues  only 
from  commanding  mind;  commanding  intellect  can  only 
be  brought  forth  by  painful  mental  travail.  Control  the 
mind.  Magnificent  are  its  powers  immortal;  glorious 
the  improvement,  or  terrible  the  havoc,  which  they  must 
make  in  the  universe ;  high  and  luminous  the  elevation, 
or  dark  and  profound  the  abyss  which  must  follow  its 


HINTS     TO     YOUTH.  127 

labors,  according  as  they  are  well  or  ill-regulated.  Yon 
can  do  much  to  acquire  command  of  your  powers,  by  long 
and  laborious  exertion.  The  reason  can  be  trained  to 
patient,  powerful,  consecutive  thought — but  not  without 
a  will,  which  to  the  soul  is  as  the  voice  of  God  to  the 
universe.  To  think,  in  this  world  of  sights  and  sounds, 
and  fragrance  and  sweets — of  fancies  and  follies,  cares 
and  duties — is  no  easy  task.  Ulysses,  as  he  passed  the 
rock  of  the  Siren,  stuffed  the  ears  of  his  companions  with 
wax,  and  lashed  his  own  body  to  the  mast.  He  who 
would  escape  the  rocks  of  folly,  as  he  sails  deep  seas  of 
thought,  must  learn  to  shut  the  gates  of  the  senses,  and 
bind  his  intellect  with  strong  cords.  The  imagination 
is  of  incalculable  value,  but  it  needs  to  be  under  stern 
control.  It  is  a  beautiful  world  of  dreams,  in  which  the 
soul  may  advantageously  luxuriate — dancing  through  its 
castles,  communing  with  its  heroes,  imparadising  itself 
in  its  bowers,  and  returning  to  the  real  world  with  the 
motion,  the  beauty,  the  fragrance,  and  the  song  of  an 
angel  fresh  from  the  scenes  of  light.  But  we  must  be 
careful  not  to  tarry  too  long  in  our  visits  to  those  enchant- 
ing regions — not  to  forget  that  we  are  visitors  there,  that 
our  proper  sphere  is  the  world  of  matter — let  us  always 
maintain  a  proper  command  of  the  ivory  gate,  so  that  we 
may  at  once  and  always  have  free  egress  to  the  upper 
air. 

The  passions  are  a  vast  deep;  it  is  good  this  deep 
should  oft  be  moved.  Let  the  east  wind,  and  the  north, 
and  the  south,  and  the  west,  bursting  from  their  caves, 
together  meet  upon  its  waters;  let  the  waves  rise  and  the 
sands  be-  thrown  up,  and  the  spray  sprinkle  the  stars,  and 
heaven  and  earth  be  commingled;  but  take  care  that 
there  shall  always  be  a  Neptune  within  the  soul,  to  raise 
his  calm  head  above  the  billows,  and  driving  the  strug- 
gling winds  to  tht-i'-  strong  prisons,  and  calming  the 


128  EDUCATIONAL     ESSAYS. 

troubled  waters,  make  a  tranquil  surface  on  which  to 
retreat  to  his  ocean  home. 

I  tremble,  reader,  to  think  that  you  are  plunged  into 
the  depths  of  the  universe,  with  an  immortal  soul,  re- 
sponsible to  a  holy  and  infinite  God.  Let  constant 
prayer  ascend,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  may  never  "leave 
you  alone.  ' 

Finally,  save  your  soul.  What  gain  can  compensate 
for  its  loss?  Who,  that  reads  his  own  heart  in  the  light 
of  God's  law,  does  not  feel  guilty?  There  is  mercy  and 
there  is  wrath  in  Jehovah — to  which  of  them  shall  the 
sinner  be  consigned?  Jesus  Christ  is  wisdom,  righteous- 
ness, sanctification,  and  redemption.  Up,  dying  sinner, 
to  his  cross ! 


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